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Municipal Revenue Enhancement Project (MunRev) (ingl.)

MunRev helps Nepal’s municipalities move from heavy dependence on central transfers towards greater fiscal self-reliance, by strengthening how they raise, manage, and use their own revenue and turn it into better local services. Its vision is accountable, financially resilient local governments that citizens trust because they can see their taxes returning as services.
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Bagmati Province Nepal
27.6624958
85.4375574
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Koshi Province Nepal
27.3372148
87.38107269999999
Nepal
Duración del proyecto
2026 - 2030
Financiado por
  • Agencia Suiza para el Desarrollo y la Cooperación COSUDE

This project is a bilateral undertaking of the Governments of Nepal and Switzerland.

Nepal’s shift to a federal system has given local governments major new responsibilities for delivering essential public services, but many still lack the resources to finance them sustainably. Despite fiscal-federalism reforms, municipalities remain heavily dependent on intergovernmental transfers because their own-source revenue is limited, revenue administration is weak, and financial-management capacity is uneven.

Largely manual and fragmented revenue processes lead to leakages, under-collection of key local taxes and fees, weak reconciliation, and limited transparency. This leaves fewer resources for local development and weakens the link between what citizens pay and the services they receive. MunRev responds by helping municipalities strengthen revenue mobilisation through better systems, digitalisation, stronger financial oversight, improved coordination across levels of government, and evidence-based policy so that local governance becomes more accountable, inclusive, and effective.

The Project

MunRev supports selected municipalities in Nepal to raise more of their own revenue, manage public finances better, and deliver improved services to citizens. Its theory of change is straightforward: when municipalities collect revenue fairly and efficiently, manage it transparently, and visibly reinvest it in services, citizens comply more readily and trust in local government grows, making municipalities more financially self-reliant.

The project works along three mutually reinforcing tracks.

  • It strengthens own-source revenue collection and tax compliance;
  • it improves the systems and procedures municipalities use to deliver public services;
  • and it helps all levels of government learn from experience, shape better public financial management policy, and scale up what works.

Practical activities include institutional strengthening, capacity development, digital revenue administration, GIS enabled property and business mapping, evidence-based planning, and closer links between revenue collected and services delivered.

MunRev is delivered in partnership with federal, provincial, and local government institutions, fostering coordination, policy dialogue, and knowledge-sharing across all three tiers. It mainstreams gender equality and social inclusion and strengthens citizen engagement in municipal planning and decision-making. Its key stakeholders are:

  • the 12 partner municipalities and their revenue and planning staff;
  • Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives, Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoLMCFAGA) at federal level and Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning (MoEAP) at provincial level;
  • and SDC as the funding partner, with Swisscontact providing technical assistance.

The ultimate beneficiaries are the residents, businesses, and communities of the partner municipalities including women and disadvantaged groups who stand to gain from stronger local finances and better services.

Goals and Outcomes

Targeted local governments have greater fiscal autonomy and deliver improved local services to their constituents, including women and disadvantaged groups (DAG). Three outcomes:

  1. Selected local governments’ own-source revenue collection and tax compliance is fair, efficient, effective, and transparent.
  2. Selected local governments’ public service-delivery systems and procedures are managed effectively, inclusively, efficiently, and transparently.
  3. All levels of government share learnings on own-source-revenue management, draft better-informed and inclusive public-financial-management policies, and scale up successful revenue programmes.

Approach

MunRev works across all three tiers of Nepal’s federal system, combining hands-on municipal support with provincial coordination and federal policy engagement. Gender equality and social inclusion, citizen engagement, digitalisation, and disaster-risk sensitivity are integrated across the work rather than treated as separate activities.

 

Expected Results 2026 - 2030

  • Partner municipalities increase their own-source revenue and reduce dependence on intergovernmental transfers.
  • Fairer, more efficient, and more transparent revenue collection and tax compliance in selected local governments.
  • Digital and better-integrated revenue administration, including improved use of national systems and property/business records.
  • Public service-delivery systems and procedures managed more effectively, inclusively, and transparently.
  • Stronger cross-government learning and better-informed, more inclusive public-financial-management policy, with successful approaches scaled up.
  • Measurable benefits for residents, businesses, and disadvantaged groups through improved local services.