Fixed deposit in Nepal: every bank's rate, the tax, and what Rs 1 lakh earns

A fixed deposit (FD, मुद्दती निक्षेप) is money you lend a bank for a fixed term, from three months to ten years or more, at a rate fixed on the day you open it. The bank pays the interest every month, every quarter or at the end, and returns the money on the maturity date. The account is a मुद्दती खाता; "term deposit" means the same thing.

It differs from a savings account (बचत खाता) in one promise: you leave the money until the term ends. In return the bank pays more, because it can lend your money for that long. In Kartik 2083 the lowest savings rate at most commercial banks was 2.75%; a one-year FD paid 2.75% to 3.20%, and the longest FDs up to 4.50%.

The shortest term allowed is three months. Nepal Rastra Bank stopped banks taking fixed deposits for less in 2019, and stopped them letting depositors draw on an FD as if it were a savings account. The smallest amount is the bank's choice: Rs 5,000 at Rastriya Banijya Bank, Rs 10,000 at ADBL and Global IME, Rs 25,000 at Nepal Bank, Rs 1,00,000 at Laxmi Sunrise (Rs 50,000 at its rural branches).

Every commercial bank publishes its deposit rates for the coming Nepali month, and most change them on the 1st. These are the individual (personal) FD rates in force from 1 Kartik 2083 (18 October 2026). Of the 20, 12 were read on the bank's own page on 4 November 2026; the other 8 banks' pages would not load their tables, so their rates are from bankbyaj, a rate-listing site. Arthasansar's survey of the month gives the same top rate for every bank but Kumari, where it quotes the app rate.

Two columns matter. The top rate, the one in news headlines and "highest FD rate" lists, is what a bank pays for its longest term. The one-year rate is what a one-year FD actually earns. Across the 20 banks the top rate ran from 3.40% to 4.50%; the one-year rate from 2.75% to 3.20%, 2.85% on average.

A bank's rate depends on the term, and the headline is the longest. Nepal Bank pays 2.76% for up to a year and 4.15% only for more than ten years. Nabil pays 2.80% for anything from three months to five years, and its 3.75% needs more than ten. At 13 of the 20 banks the top rate needs five years or more, and at 3 (Nabil, Nepal Bank and Prabhu) more than ten.

So "the highest fixed deposit rate in Nepal" is 4.50% (Machhapuchchhre, NMB and Sanima), but nobody gets it on a one-year FD. For a year, the best published rate in Kartik was 3.20%, and 15 of the 20 banks paid between 2.75% and 2.90%. Kumari publishes two sets: 3.40% at a branch and 3.70% in its app for two years and more.

A long term is a promise in both directions. The rate is fixed for the whole term, the coupon rate, so if rates fall, a ten-year FD keeps paying the old rate; if they rise, as they did to 10–12% in 2022, it keeps paying the old rate too, and breaking it to move costs money (see breaking early, below).

Deposit

Rs 1,00,000

One-year rate, average

2.85%

Tax, 6%

Rs 171

You keep in a year

Rs 2,678

Sita puts Rs 1,00,000 in a one-year FD at 2.85%, the average one-year rate in Kartik 2083, with interest paid quarterly. Each quarter the interest is Rs 1,00,000 × 2.85% × 3 ÷ 12 = Rs 712.13. The bank keeps back 6%, Rs 42.73, and pays Rs 669.40 into her savings account. Over the year that is Rs 2,678 after Rs 171 of tax, and her Rs 1,00,000 back at the end.

At the longest terms the sums are larger. At the average top rate, 4.013%, the year's interest is Rs 4,013, Rs 3,772 after tax; at the highest, 4.50%, Rs 4,230. NRB projects prices to rise about 5.5% in 2083/84: Rs 5,500 on Rs 1,00,000. All three fall short of it, as the picture shows.

• Rs 1,00,000: about Rs 235 a month after tax at 3%, Rs 313 at 4%.
• Rs 5,00,000: about Rs 1,175 a month after tax at 3%, Rs 1,567 at 4%.
• Rs 10,00,000: about Rs 2,350 a month after tax at 3%, Rs 3,133 at 4%.
• Rs 25,00,000: about Rs 5,875 a month after tax at 3%, Rs 7,833 at 4%.

Most banks pay FD interest every three months. ADBL's and Global IME's FD pages say "quarterly" outright, Rastriya Banijya Bank's notice says interest on all its FDs opened since 1 Magh 2079 "will be paid on a quarterly basis", and Himalayan's notice says the same, as do Machhapuchchhre's and Prime's pages in the copies search engines hold. Several let you choose: Citizens offers quarterly or monthly, Laxmi Sunrise "at maturity or quarterly, depending on term", and Siddhartha's form lists monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, yearly or at maturity.

Paid-out interest goes into your savings account at the same bank, after the tax, and earns only the savings rate there. The FD itself stays the same size. A cumulative FD is different: the interest, less the tax, is added to the deposit every quarter and earns interest from then on. That is compounding. Kumari's Fixed Deposit Plus works this way ("accrued interest posted to the account quarterly", paid out with the principal at maturity), and Nabil lists a Cumulative FD.

On Rs 1,00,000 at 4.00% for five years, compounding adds Rs 1,777.46 over paying out. Before tax, 4.00% compounded quarterly works out to 4.060% a year. The difference grows with the rate and the years, which is why it mattered more when rates were 10%.

A bank or financial institution must keep back 6% of the interest it pays a person on deposits, debentures and bonds, where the money is not part of a business: section 88(3) of the Income Tax Act, 2058. It is a final withholding under section 92: a resident individual has nothing more to pay and nothing to declare, and the interest is not added to salary when tax on salary is worked out.

The rate was 5% until the budget for 2080/81, presented on 29 May 2023, raised it to 6%. No change was reported for 2083/84. Pages that still say 5%, or 15%, are out of date or wrong. The tax is taken from each credit, so an FD's rate after tax is the rate × 0.94: 4.00% becomes 3.76%.

The same 6% is taken from savings-account interest. Institutions' deposits and non-residents are taxed under other rules, which this page does not cover; ask the bank what it withholds.

Each bank sets its own rates, but Nepal Rastra Bank sets the ground they stand on. Its policy rate, 4.25%, is the rate it aims to keep overnight lending between banks near. Around it sits the interest-rate corridor: a floor of 2.75%, which NRB pays banks to park spare cash with it overnight (the standing deposit facility), and a ceiling of 5.75%, at which banks can borrow from NRB (the bank rate). NRB cut the policy rate from 4.5% and the ceiling from 6% in December 2025, and the monetary policy for 2083/84, announced on 7 July 2026, kept all three.

In mid-September 2026 the rate between banks sat at 2.75%, on the floor, and a 91-day Treasury bill paid 1.35%. That says banks hold more money than they can lend. A bank that cannot lend has no reason to pay much for deposits, so deposit rates fell: the average rate on all commercial-bank deposits was 3.11%, against 3.96% a year earlier.

Loans are priced from the base rate, each bank's cost of funds worked out monthly, plus a premium. The commercial banks' average base rate was 4.70% and their average lending rate 6.38%. NRB caps the spread, the gap between a bank's average lending and deposit rates, at 4% for commercial banks (set in November 2022); Rastriya Banijya Bank's own spread in Ashwin 2083 was 3.35%. The cap means a bank that pays depositors more must charge borrowers more, and the reverse.

• Rates are published before the month. Banks publish next month's rates on the last day of the month before, and may change them mid-month only after NRB changes its policy rate.
• Changes are limited. A published rate may move by at most 10% of itself in a month: a 4.00% rate by at most 0.4 points.
• FD and savings stay close. The top individual FD rate may be at most 5 points above the lowest savings rate.
• Remittance money earns more: 1 point over the normal rate, as banks publish it.
• Institutions' rates are now free to set. The rule that kept them at least a point below individuals' was removed in December 2025.

Today's rates are low by Nepal's own history. NRB's average rate on all fixed deposits at commercial banks, which includes old FDs and institutions' deposits, was 10.24% in mid-July 2018 and 10.13% in mid-July 2023. Banks offered individuals more than that: the Bankers' Association capped individual FDs at 12% in May 2022 and cut the cap to 11% on 15 January 2023. By mid-July 2026 the average was 4.95%.

So no bank gives 9.5% on an FD now. The question comes from 2022 and 2023, when 9.5–12% was common. In Kartik 2083 the highest individual rate at any commercial bank was 4.50%, and the highest remittance FD about 5.5%.

The chart sets each July's rate beside inflation over the year that followed. In every one of the 9 years with both figures, a one-year FD at the average rate beat inflation after today's 6% tax, by 0.75% to 4.76% a year. The most recent, 2025/26, was helped by inflation of only 3.08%. For 2026/27 the record turns: NRB projects about 5.5%, above the 4.95% average FD rate even before tax.

The real return is what the money gains in what it can buy: (1 + rate after tax) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. At the average top rate of 4.013%, you keep 3.772% after tax. Prices rose 6.34% in the year to mid-September 2026, so the real return was about −2.41% a year. At NRB's projection of 5.5% it is −1.64%; on a one-year FD at the average one-year rate, −2.68%.

Over ten years the gap adds up. Rs 1,00,000 in a cumulative FD at 4.00% for ten years becomes Rs 1,45,389 after tax. If prices rise 5.5% a year, that buys what Rs 85,115 buys today. The rupees grew; their buying power shrank.

This does not make an FD a mistake. It makes it a tool for a job: keeping money safe for a known date, not growing it. The question is which money belongs there.

• Money needed within one to three years: a fee, a wedding, a deposit on a flat. Nothing that can fall belongs here.
• The emergency fund: three to six months of spending. Part in savings, part in a short FD, or in an FD you can borrow against.
• The safe part of a long-term plan, beside shares or funds, so a market fall never forces a sale.
• Not for growing money over ten years or more, while the rate after tax is below inflation. See how to invest in Nepal for where that money can go.

Premature withdrawal (समयअगावै भुक्तानी) is closing an FD before maturity. Banks allow it for individuals at a price each sets for itself. The terms are in each bank's schedule of charges, not on its rate page, and only three of the 20 publish a rule we could read in full. Their rules differ a great deal, and all three can cost most of a year's interest.

For institutions, the rule is stricter: no withdrawal before six months, which banks say is NRB's directive. At Laxmi Sunrise its term deposit for Nepalis abroad cannot be broken for a year.

Below, Rs 1,00,000 in a long FD at each bank is broken after one year. "Kept" is what the year would have earned at the FD's own rate, after tax. How a bank takes back interest it has already paid out quarterly is not stated; on our reading the difference comes out of what you get back.

• Siddhartha, above 5 years at 3.76%: the lower of the coupon or the published rate for the time held (2.75% for a year), less 2% a year; nothing at all within 3 months. Broken after a year it earns Rs 705 after tax instead of Rs 3,534.
• Everest, above 3 years at 3.75%: the rate for the time held (2.75% for a year) less 3 points; 15 days' notice. Broken after a year it earns nothing instead of Rs 3,525, on our reading of its terms.
• Kumari, 2 years at 3.40%: the lowest savings rate (2.76%) from the day the FD was opened, and a flat Rs 10. Broken after a year it earns Rs 2,584 after tax instead of Rs 3,196.

A loan against an FD (मुद्दती रसिद धितो कर्जा) lets you borrow while the FD keeps earning. The bank holds the FD as security. ADBL, Everest, Laxmi Sunrise, Siddhartha and Global IME lend up to 90% of the deposit. The rate is usually the FD's own rate plus up to 2 points, or the bank's base rate if that is higher; Nepal Bank's schedule cites NRB's directive for this.

Ram has Rs 2,00,000 in a five-year FD at 4.00% and needs Rs 1,50,000 for 6 months. He could borrow up to Rs 1,80,000. At 4.00% + 2 points = 6.00%, the loan costs Rs 4,500 in interest. His FD earns Rs 3,760 after tax in the same months, so the loan costs him Rs 740 net, and his FD and its rate are intact. Breaking it would cost what the previous section shows.

An FD cannot fall in rupees, and Nepal adds a guarantee. If a bank or financial institution licensed by NRB fails, the deposit guarantee pays each individual depositor up to Rs 5,00,000 per institution, savings and fixed deposits together. It is run by the Deposit and Credit Guarantee Fund (निक्षेप तथा कर्जा सुरक्षण कोष), and the bank pays the premium, 0.16% a year, not you. The limit was raised from Rs 3,00,000 by an amendment to NRB's directive of 2079.

It covers commercial banks, development banks, finance companies and microfinance institutions. It does not cover companies' and other institutions' deposits, and it does not cover savings and credit cooperatives: about Rs 46 arba was owed to some 76,000 cooperative depositors in May 2026. A Ministry of Finance draft of September 2026 would bring cooperatives in; it is not law.

The fund guaranteed about Rs 15 kharba (Rs 1.51 trillion) of deposits in 47.7 million accounts in mid-January 2025, against a risk reserve of Rs 9.82 arba. The Auditor General has warned that it would be about Rs 16.17 arba short if a commercial bank failed; the fund's chief replies that the state stands behind it. It has paid out before: about Rs 11 crore to Himalayan Finance's depositors.

• The limit is per institution. Rs 12,00,000 in one bank has Rs 5,00,000 guaranteed; split between three banks as Rs 5,00,000, Rs 5,00,000 and Rs 2,00,000, all of it is.
• Check the licence. NRB publishes the list of licensed banks and financial institutions. A cooperative calling its savings an FD is not a bank FD.
• Debentures and bonds are not deposits. A bank's debenture is a loan to the bank, not covered by the guarantee.
• A bank's health shows in its reports: its capital adequacy and bad loans are in its quarterly report; reading a company's numbers explains them.

A remittance FD (विप्रेषण मुद्दती निक्षेप) is opened with money sent from abroad, and banks pay 1 point more for it: Nepal SBI ("1.00% above card rate"), Everest, NMB, NIC Asia and Nepal Investment Mega say so in their notices, and Kumari says it "may add at least 1%" with proof of remittance. On Rs 5,00,000 that is Rs 5,000 more a year before tax, Rs 4,700 after. The highest remittance FD rates in Kartik 2083 were about 5.15–5.50%, again for long terms.

The government's Foreign Employment Savings Bond paid 7.5% for five years at its last issue in Kartik–Mangsir 2082; no new savings bond had been issued in 2083/84 by 1 November 2026. Exchange rates for sending money home are on the exchange rate page.

Nepalis living or working abroad can also hold foreign-currency FDs in dollars and other currencies, usually from USD 1,000 and a year. Laxmi Sunrise lets the holder keep the money in Nepal in rupees or take principal and interest back abroad in the same currency at maturity. Rates and terms from the banks' own pages, Kartik 2083 (ADBL's from a search copy of its page):

A recurring deposit (रेकरिङ निक्षेप) takes a fixed sum every month for a term, one to five years at most banks, and pays it all back with interest at the end. It suits someone saving from a salary for a known date. Rates in Kartik 2083: Nepal Bank 2.76%, Kumari 2.75%, Siddhartha's Goal Saver 2.75%, Prabhu 2.75%, Laxmi Sunrise 3.50%, ADBL's Recurring Muddati 4.15%; Nepal Bank's starts from Rs 1,000 a month. At Kumari a missed instalment closes the account and moves the balance to savings.

If the money would sit in a fund instead, a monthly SIP buys units whose value moves; the SIP calculator runs the same monthly sum both ways, beside a deposit.

• Digital FDs. Citizens' Digital FD pays 3.15% for 12 months from Rs 10,000, above its branch rate of 2.85–2.90% for the same term; Kumari's app pays 3.70% for two years and more against 3.40% at a branch. Opening in the app can be the difference.
• Partial withdrawal. Everest's Pizza Deposit lets you take up to half in slices of Rs 10,000, five times before maturity, without a penalty (from Rs 1,00,000, 1–10 years).
• Senior citizens. No bank of the 20 publishes a higher FD rate for older people; their senior savings accounts pay the normal savings rate.
• Auto-renewal. Everest and Standard Chartered offer it; ADBL renews from the maturity date on request. A renewed FD takes the rate of the day it renews, not the old one.
• Institutional FDs pay less: 2.75–3.50% at the banks that publish them in Kartik 2083, from six months.

Put Rs 1,00,000 in each at mid-July 2018 and look in mid-July 2026. A one-year FD renewed every July at NRB's average rate, after tax, became Rs 1,89,913. The NEPSE index, which leaves out dividends, became Rs 2,14,269. Gold became Rs 4,99,298. Prices rose so that Rs 1,49,085 was needed to buy what Rs 1,00,000 bought in 2018. The FD beat prices because rates were near 10% for most of those years; that is not true now.

Start in mid-July 2021 instead, near NEPSE's top, and the order changes for shares: the FD became Rs 1,46,038, NEPSE Rs 90,095, gold Rs 3,05,365, prices Rs 1,29,555. Gold's run was unusual and it can fall too: from its record of Rs 3,39,300 a tola on 29 January 2026 it had lost 20% by 1 November.

A SIP puts in money monthly, so it compares with monthly deposits. In the SIP guide's real cases, Rs 5,000 a month into Siddhartha's SIP fund from August 2021, kept going, earned 9% a year to November 2026; the same instalments in a deposit renewed each July earned 7.4%. Rs 5,000 a month into NIBL Sahabhagita from January 2021 earned 2%, against 7.5% in a deposit. One SIP beat the FD and one lost to it.

An FD is not the only place for money that should not fall. These are the others a Nepali saver can use, with what they paid in late 2026. Only bank deposits carry the Rs 5 lakh guarantee.

1. 1Decide the term from the date you will need the money, and the payout: interest to savings (monthly or quarterly) or cumulative.
2. 2Read this month's rate page of two or three banks for that term, and their terms for breaking early and for a loan against the FD.
3. 3Open or use a savings account at the same bank. Interest is paid into it, and at ADBL the principal and interest at maturity go to the linked account.
4. 4Fill in the FD form: the amount, the term, the payout, a nominee, and whether it renews by itself. A new customer gives the bank's usual KYC documents, such as citizenship or national ID and photos.
5. 5Pay in from the savings account. Some banks open FDs in their app; Citizens' Digital FD and Kumari's app rate pay more than the branch.
6. 6Keep the FD receipt or certificate and write down the maturity date.
7. 7At maturity, renew it (at that day's rate), move it, or let it pay into savings.

"Which bank is best for fixed deposits in Nepal?" has no honest one-name answer, and this page names none. The highest number in a headline is for a term you may not want, and rates change every month. These are the things that decide which FD suits you:

• The rate for your term, after the 6% tax, at the banks you can use. Not the top rate.
• The payout you need: monthly or quarterly income, or cumulative growth.
• The cost of breaking it, from the bank's schedule of charges. At the three banks that publish it, breaking a long FD after a year cost from 19% of the year's interest to 100%.
• A loan against it: how much, and at what margin over the FD's rate.
• The guarantee: above Rs 5 lakh, split between banks.
• The bank's soundness: an NRB licence, and its capital and bad loans in its quarterly report.
• Convenience: the minimum amount, an app rate, a branch near you; the remittance rate if your money comes from abroad.