Ministries of Nepal: Complete Directory of Federal Ministries

Nepal is a federal democratic republic in which executive power at the federal (central) level is vested in the Council of Ministers, not in the President. Article 75 of the Constitution of Nepal (2015) places the executive power of the country in the Council of Ministers, and the general direction, control and regulation of governance lies with it. The President acts almost entirely on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, which functions on the principle of collective responsibility to the House of Representatives.

Article 76 governs how the Council of Ministers is formed: the President appoints as Prime Minister the leader of a party (or coalition) that commands a majority in the House of Representatives, and the Council is constituted under the Prime Minister's chairpersonship. The Constitution caps the Council of Ministers at a maximum of 25 members, including the Prime Minister, drawn from members of the federal parliament on the principle of inclusion.

Each member of the Council typically heads one or more ministries. A ministry is the standing administrative organisation that turns government policy into programmes, staffed by permanent civil servants and led politically by a minister. The work that each ministry is responsible for, its jurisdiction, and the departments and offices placed under it are formally defined by the Government of Nepal (Allocation of Business) Rules/Regulations issued under the Constitution.

The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) is the apex coordinating body of the federal executive. It supports the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers in leading the government, and is the central secretariat that connects all the line ministries.

Among its core functions, the OPMCM is responsible for the formation, dissolution and alteration of the organisational structure of ministries; the formulation, approval and issuance of bills, ordinances and rules; and the observation, inspection, supervision, coordination and monitoring of government work across ministries. Because ministries are created and reorganised through the Allocation of Business Rules administered at this level, the OPMCM is effectively the body that defines how many ministries exist and what each one does.

The number of federal ministries in Nepal is not fixed by the Constitution and has changed several times. In May 2026 the federal government carried out a major administrative overhaul, reducing the number of ministries from 22 to 18. The change was made through the Government of Nepal (Allocation of Business) Regulations, 2083 (2026), approved by the Cabinet in mid-May 2026 and brought into effect through publication in the Nepal Gazette. The government described the goals as reducing state expenditure, removing duplication of responsibilities and streamlining governance.

Several core ministries were left unchanged, including Finance, Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, as well as Industry, Commerce and Supplies; Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation; and Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation. Other ministries were merged or reorganised. The former Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport and the Ministry of Urban Development were combined into a single ministry responsible for infrastructure development, and science and technology functions were separated from education to create a new Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Below is the directory of federal ministries under the 2026 Allocation of Business Regulations. Ministry names in Nepal are periodically adjusted as portfolios are merged or renamed, so the titles below reflect the post-May 2026 structure. Each ministry runs a network of departments, central-level agencies and field offices; some of the largest (such as Home Affairs and Finance) command very large bureaucracies and significant shares of the national budget.

Each ministry has a defined mandate and a set of departments and offices that carry out its work. The Ministry of Home Affairs is responsible for internal security, law and order, citizenship, immigration and disaster management; it oversees Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force, the Department of Immigration, the Department of National ID and Civil Registration, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, and the country's District Administration Offices. The Ministry of Finance manages public finance, taxation and the national budget, and oversees the Inland Revenue Department, the Department of Customs, the Office of the Financial Comptroller General and the Department of Revenue Investigation.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs conducts Nepal's external relations and diplomacy and manages the country's embassies, missions and consulates abroad. The Ministry of Defence is responsible for national defence policy and oversees the Nepali Army. The education portfolio (the Ministry of Education and Sports under the 2026 structure) handles school and higher education, technical and vocational training and sport, while the health portfolio (the Ministry of Health and Food Security) guides the Department of Health Services, the Department of Drug Administration and the Department of Ayurveda and Alternative Medicine, among others.

Ministries operate at the federal level alongside provincial ministries and local governments, reflecting Nepal's three-tier federal system. Many service functions are shared or devolved, so a federal ministry sets national policy and standards while implementation often happens through provincial and local bodies.

Unlike the broad structure of the executive, which is fixed by the Constitution, the exact list of ministries is set by subordinate legislation (the Allocation of Business Rules/Regulations) and can be changed by the Cabinet. As a result, the number of ministries and their precise titles have shifted with successive governments and coalition arrangements, and portfolios are frequently merged, split or renamed.

For this reason, the safest way to confirm a ministry's current name, mandate and website is to consult the latest Allocation of Business Regulations and the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers. Individual ministries also publish their own introductions, organisational charts and lists of departments on their official .gov.np websites, which are the authoritative sources for up-to-date detail.