Malpot Karyalaya & Napi Karyalaya: Office Directory + Land Transfer Process

Two separate government offices handle land in Nepal, and confusing them is the most common mistake first-time buyers make. The Land Revenue Office, known in Nepali as the Malpot Karyalaya, is where legal ownership lives: it registers deeds (rajistrasan), transfers ownership through mutation (dakhil kharej / namsari), issues the ownership certificate (lalpurja or jaggadhani purja), collects annual land tax (malpot), and maintains the written land records (moth shresta).

The Survey Office, called the Napi Karyalaya, handles the spatial side: it prepares and updates the cadastral maps (naksa), measures parcels, splits one plot into several (kitta kat) or merges plots, and issues field maps and trace maps (tracing) that the Malpot office relies on. When you split a plot to sell part of it, the Napi office measures and re-numbers the parcels first, then the Malpot office registers the sale.

Both offices sit under the same parent ministry, the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives, Federal Affairs and General Administration (Bhumi Byabastha, Sahakari, Sanghiya Mamila tatha Samanya Prashasan Mantralaya). Malpot offices report to the Department of Land Management and Archive (DoLMA), while Napi offices report to the Department of Survey (Napi Bibhag). Because the two departments are separate, you may need to visit both offices during a single transaction.

The Department of Land Management and Archive operates a nationwide network of Land Revenue Offices, reported at 126 offices when DoLMA rolled out its online Land Records Information Management System (LRIMS) to all of them. The offices are organised under seven provincial groupings, matching Nepal's federal provinces: Koshi, Madhesh, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali, and Sudurpaschim. Larger districts have more than one Malpot office because of transaction volume.

The Kathmandu Valley illustrates how offices are distributed by workload rather than strictly one per district. Kathmandu district alone is served by multiple Land Revenue Offices, including offices at Dillibazar, Kalanki, Chabahil, and offices covering Tokha, Sankhu and Manamaiju; Lalitpur is served by offices at Lagankhel and Gotikhel; and Bhaktapur has its own office. Each office serves a fixed set of wards or former Village Development Committee (VDC) areas, so you must go to the office that holds the records for the specific plot, not simply the nearest one.

You can find the correct office for any parcel through the DoLMA website (dolma.gov.np), which lists offices province by province and provides a Public Access Module (PAM) for citizens to view land records online. Because ward boundaries and office jurisdictions have been redrawn since federal restructuring, always confirm the servicing office by the plot's district, municipality/rural municipality, ward number, and kitta (parcel) number before travelling.

The Department of Survey (Napi Bibhag), headquartered at Minbhawan in Kathmandu, lists a large network of Survey Offices, with its Napi offices page enumerating well over a hundred offices spread from eastern districts such as Taplejung, Panchthar and Ilam to far-western districts such as Kanchanpur and Baitadi. The department is organised into technical divisions covering topographical survey and land use, geodetic survey, geographic information infrastructure, and cadastral survey.

For an ordinary land transaction, the cadastral survey function matters most. When you need to split a plot (kitta kat), merge plots, correct a boundary shown wrongly on the map, or obtain an official trace of your parcel, the Napi office sends a surveyor (amin) to measure on the ground, updates the cadastral map, and issues the revised parcel numbers and a trace map. The Malpot office will not register a sale of part of a plot until the Napi office has completed this measurement and issued the new kitta numbers.

Survey offices generally keep the same government hours as other offices: roughly 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM in the summer schedule and 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM in the winter schedule, Sunday to Friday, with Saturday closed. The authoritative, current list of Survey Offices with phone numbers and email addresses is published at dos.gov.np on its Napi offices page, and many offices now have individual portals under the government's geographic information system.

Registering a land purchase, and issuing the new owner's lalpurja, is a deed-based process: the government records and witnesses the transfer rather than guaranteeing title, so accurate documents matter. The buyer and seller (or their authorised representatives) must appear together at the Malpot office that holds the plot's records, with the deed drafted and the required papers ready. If only part of a plot is being sold, the kitta kat at the Napi office is completed first so the deed refers to the correct new parcel numbers.

At the office, staff verify the seller's ownership and the plot details against the written records (moth shresta) and the cadastral map. Tax and fee amounts are then calculated on the higher of the declared transaction value or the office's minimum valuation (nyunatam mulya). After the buyer pays the registration fee and any applicable taxes and clears outstanding land tax, the authorised officer approves the registration, the records are updated to the new owner (dakhil kharej), and a fresh lalpurja is issued. The completed file is archived in the tameli section.

Bring originals and photocopies of every document; missing a single item, such as the ghar-bato recommendation or the current year's tax receipt, is the usual cause of a wasted trip. Many steps can now be started online through DoLMA's system, but final approval, biometrics and lalpurja collection are done at the office in person.

Dakhil kharej is the mutation step, meaning the removal of the previous owner's name and entry of the new owner's name in the land records after a valid transfer. It applies not only to sale and purchase but also to transfers arising from court decisions, auctions, and decisions of other government agencies. In everyday speech, jagga namsari refers broadly to changing the name on the land record, and the process is what actually makes a buyer, heir, or beneficiary the legally recognised owner.

Inheritance is handled through namsari when an owner dies: heirs apply to transfer the deceased's land into their names. Timing matters, because doing the transfer promptly avoids fees or complications that can arise after a set period following the death; late applications may attract charges, so families should not delay. Where multiple heirs exist, the office follows succession rules and may require an amsabanda (partition) or consent among heirs before it splits and records the shares.

For transfers ordered by a court or created by auction, the relevant decision document is the basis for the dakhil kharej, and a public notice period (commonly around 35 days) may apply before the office finalises the record change so that any objection can be raised. In all cases the outcome is the same: updated moth shresta records and a lalpurja reflecting the new owner.

The registration fee (rajistrasan dastur) is set by the local government under the Local Government Operation Act 2074 BS (2017 AD), so the exact percentage varies by municipality; as a common pattern it is higher in metropolitan cities and lower in rural municipalities, and many local levels give women buyers a concession. Because rates are set locally and change through annual finance ordinances, you should confirm the current percentage for your specific municipality with the Malpot office before transacting rather than relying on a single national figure.

Capital gains tax applies to the seller's profit on land and buildings. For individuals, the commonly applied rates are 5% where the property was owned for more than five years and 7.5% where it was owned for less than five years, calculated on the gain (sale price minus acquisition cost and eligible improvement costs). The Malpot office typically collects this at the point of registration, and DoLMA's website offers an online capital gains and registration calculator to estimate amounts in advance.

Separately, owners pay an annual land tax (malpot / bhumi kar) to keep records current; a valid tax clearance receipt (tiro rasid) for the current year is required before any registration or mutation goes through. Always treat any percentage or amount quoted here as indicative and verify the live figures for your municipality and fiscal year at the office, because local rates, valuations and concessions are updated regularly.

The core paperwork is predictable across most offices, but each office can ask for extra items depending on the plot's history. At minimum, bring the existing lalpurja, the current-year land tax clearance receipt (tiro rasid), citizenship certificates of both buyer and seller, PAN cards, the drafted sale deed, recent photographs, and the ghar-bato / road-access recommendation (sifaris) from the local ward or municipality. For inheritance or partition cases, add the death registration and relationship/succession documents.

Because Malpot and Napi are separate offices, sequence your visits: if the transaction involves splitting or measuring a plot, resolve the Napi (Survey) work first so the deed uses the correct kitta numbers, then complete registration at Malpot. Confirm which Malpot office actually holds your plot's records using the district, municipality, ward, and kitta number, since serving jurisdictions were redrawn after federal restructuring.

Finally, use official channels to prepare: check DoLMA (dolma.gov.np) for your Land Revenue Office and to view records online, and the Department of Survey (dos.gov.np) for the correct Survey Office and its contact details. Carrying originals plus photocopies of everything, and confirming the current fee and valuation by phone before you travel, prevents the most common cause of failed registrations, a single missing document.