Paying Government Bills Online via ConnectIPS in Nepal

ConnectIPS (stylised "connectIPS") is an electronic payment system built as a single, standardised platform for retail payments in Nepal. It is developed and operated by Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL), a company licensed and regulated by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, as a Payment System Operator (PSO). NCHL was established on 23 December 2008 (8 Poush 2065 BS) and is a publicly held company with equity participation from Nepal Rastra Bank, commercial banks, development banks and finance companies.

Unlike a stored-value wallet, ConnectIPS works directly with a user's linked bank account or accounts. It supports three broad transaction types: customer-to-government (C2G), customer-to-business (C2B) and peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers. Registration on the web portal or mobile app is free; users sign up with a username and password, then link bank accounts and complete a one-time verification at a bank branch (some banks allow digital self-verification, typically with a transaction cap).

ConnectIPS operates as an online payment gateway that appears at the checkout pages of government and other service portals. When paying a government fee, a citizen selects ConnectIPS as the payment option, logs in with their ConnectIPS credentials, chooses the bank account to debit, and authorises the payment with a transaction password and/or a one-time password (OTP) sent to the registered mobile number and email.

Because the platform connects directly to bank accounts via NCHL's interbank infrastructure (including the NCHL-IPS interbank payment system and the Retail Payment Switch), transfers are credited and debited in near real time for the sender and receiver. Retail transactions originating from ConnectIPS are ultimately settled in the books of the central bank through NRB's Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, which reduces settlement risk in the wider payments ecosystem.

NCHL has enabled the online collection of revenue and fees directly from taxpayers' accounts at member banks and financial institutions into the designated accounts of Government of Nepal entities. This has substantially replaced paper-based payment for many government services, allowing citizens to pay from home rather than queuing at offices.

Beyond government revenue, ConnectIPS functions as a biller-payment platform for everyday services. It is one of the official online-banking payment methods accepted by Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) for electricity bills, alongside NEA counters, designated banks, mobile banking and digital wallets; consumers typically need their NEA consumer number to pay. Municipal drinking-water (Khanepani) bills and other recurring utility payments are also supported through the platform's biller directory.

School and college fees, insurance premiums, stockbroker payments, travel and tour bookings, and similar services are also available, making ConnectIPS a general-purpose channel for both public and private dues.

ConnectIPS is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through its web channel, mobile app and the embedded payment gateway, so government fees can be paid outside office hours. Most biller and service payments — including many government payments — are free of charge for customers. For account-to-account fund transfers, charges fall within a small slab, generally ranging from about Rs. 0 to Rs. 8 depending on the transaction amount.

Transaction limits vary by channel. Retail use through the web and mobile app is suited to ordinary citizens, while higher-value flows are handled through the CORPORATEPAY platform on the NCHL-IPS rails for institutional and bulk payments. Self-verified accounts that skip the branch visit are usually subject to a lower per-transaction ceiling.

Annual vehicle (road) tax in Nepal is administered at the provincial level through Transport Management Offices, and the available online channels differ by province. In several provinces, including Bagmati Province, vehicle owners can initiate payment online through the government's Nagarik App and partner platforms such as eSewa, Khalti and ConnectIPS. After paying online, owners generally still need to visit the Transport Management Office with the digital receipt and vehicle documents to complete the physical Bluebook renewal.

Because provincial systems integrate with different gateways, eSewa and Khalti are often the more convenient route for specific provincial vehicle-tax and Bluebook-renewal flows where ConnectIPS may not be directly enabled. Vehicle tax is normally due before the end of Ashad (around mid-July) each fiscal year; this article describes the payment channels rather than the rates, which change each fiscal year and vary by province and engine capacity.