Labour Audit in Nepal 2082/83 (2026)

Annually, with the standard practical deadline at the end of Poush (around mid-January), covering the prior Nepali fiscal year. Submission via the ILMIS portal or email/office.

A fine of up to NPR 20,000 under the Labour Act 2074 for failure to submit or for false information, alongside the inspection risk on the underlying records.

Section 100 of the Labour Act 2074 obliges each enterprise to conduct a labour audit on itself, reviewing whether its acts and practices align with the Act, the Rules and other prevailing labour law, and to keep the report ready for the Labour Office. Rule 56 of Labour Rules 2075 implements the obligation, with Schedule 10 prescribing the form. The Department of Labour & Occupational Safety administers compliance.

The Section 100 obligation applies to each enterprise under the Labour Act 2074. In practice, the formal Schedule 10 filing is enforced most visibly on enterprises with 10 or more workers and those registered with the Labour and Employment Office, with smaller employers expected to follow the same compliance discipline. Confirm whether your enterprise must file the formal Schedule 10 with the Labour Office where it is registered.

Schedule 10 covers written employment contracts; payroll and minimum-wage compliance; overtime and deductions; working hours and leave records; festival expense and Bonus Act 2030 compliance; SSF contributions under the Contribution-Based Social Security Act 2074; occupational health and safety; trade-union and collective-bargaining compliance under the Trade Union Act 2049; and the absence of child labour and discrimination. It is, in effect, the full HR stack on a single form.

Either. An internal audit by a managerial-level employee designated by management is permitted, as is an external audit by an individual or audit firm meeting the qualifications set under the Labour Audit Standard — typically a Nepali citizen with a bachelor's degree and at least two years of managerial experience, or a registered audit organisation meeting equivalent standards. Larger or more complex enterprises commonly engage an external auditor to add independence.

The audit relies on the employer's HR records: employment contracts, the employee register, monthly payroll and tax withholdings, attendance and leave records, the festival expense and bonus computation, SSF contribution records, occupational health and safety documentation, the internal HR policy and any collective bargaining agreement, and trade-union and grievance records. A clean, indexed document set is what allows the auditor to complete Schedule 10 in a few days rather than weeks.

The audit is filed annually, with the standard practical deadline at the end of Poush — around mid-January — covering the prior Nepali fiscal year. The Department of Labour & Occupational Safety has historically reinforced the Poush deadline through notices each year. Late submission attracts the fine under the Act, so the year-end-into-January window is the busy period for HR teams and external auditors handling several clients at once.

The Schedule 10 report is submitted to the concerned Labour and Employment Office where the enterprise is registered. Department of Labour & Occupational Safety practice now encourages submission through the Integrated Labour Management Information System (ILMIS) portal at ilmis.dolos.gov.np, or by email to the office of registration, with hard copy also accepted in line with office practice. Confirm the channel preferred by your specific office before submitting.

Internal audits cost the time of the designated manager and the supporting HR team. External audits are charged at professional fees, which vary by the size of the enterprise, the number of workers, the cleanliness of records and whether multiple branches are involved. Because the auditor's time is dominated by reconciling underlying records, employers with well-kept payroll, leave and SSF records pay less than those who let things drift through the year.

Yes. The financial audit, under the Companies Act and Income Tax Act, reviews the financial statements; it is conducted by a chartered accountant and filed with different regulators. The labour audit reviews labour-law compliance, is governed by the Labour Act 2074 / Rules 2075, is filed with the Labour Office, and can be conducted by a qualifying internal or external auditor who is not necessarily a chartered accountant. Both run annually, and a well-run enterprise schedules them together.

Yes. Schedule 10 reviews whether the enterprise has enrolled with the Social Security Fund and has been depositing the 31% combined contribution (11% employee + 20% employer) on time, alongside the employee-level SSF records. Gaps in SSF contribution or non-enrolment are typically flagged in the audit and corrected before the report is filed. SSF compliance is one of the most-asked-about line items in the labour audit each year.

Yes. Schedule 10 reviews compliance with the Bonus Act 2030 — whether the enterprise has allocated and distributed the statutory annual bonus, the eligibility treatment, and the bonus computation. Because the Bonus Act has its own threshold and computation rules, this is one of the areas where employers most often discover gaps during the audit, especially in profit-making years when bonus accruals were not booked on time during the fiscal year.

ILMIS — Integrated Labour Management Information System — is the Department of Labour & Occupational Safety's online portal at ilmis.dolos.gov.np, used for employer registration with the Labour Office and for several filings including the annual labour audit submission. Using the portal creates an electronic record of the filing and is the preferred submission channel under current DoLOS practice. Email and hard-copy routes remain available where the office accepts them.

Yes. Foreign workers under an enterprise's payroll are within the scope of the Labour Act 2074 and therefore within the labour audit — their employment contracts, work permits, non-tourist visas, SSF position where applicable, and the broader labour-law compliance for them are reviewed in Schedule 10. Cross-border employment also engages immigration and taxation rules, so a comprehensive audit looks across the labour, immigration and tax interfaces.

Compliance with the Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention) Act 2071 is part of the broader workplace-compliance picture and is commonly reviewed alongside the Schedule 10 audit. The audit looks at whether the employer has the workplace policy and procedures the Act expects, whether complaints have been handled correctly, and whether managerial duties under the 2071 Act are being met. Findings here often inform the action plan that follows the audit.

The submitted Schedule 10 sits with the Labour and Employment Office as the enterprise's annual compliance record, available to the office on inspection. Most filings do not trigger any follow-up, but where the audit shows gaps the office may schedule a deeper review and require corrective action. A clean audit is the best protection against an intrusive inspection, which is the practical reason employers invest in the audit beyond the formal fine for missing it.

The auditor and the employer (or its authorised representative) both sign the Schedule 10 report. Where the audit is internal, the designated manager-level employee signs as auditor and a senior officer signs on behalf of the enterprise — they should not be the same person. Where the audit is external, the independent auditor signs alongside the employer. Maintaining the auditor-employer separation, even internally, is part of the audit's credibility.

For first-time labour-audit set-up, for a complex enterprise (multiple branches, foreign workers, contract labour), for an audit that surfaces compliance gaps the employer wants to fix before a Labour Office inspection, and for an enterprise approaching a regulated milestone (foreign-investment review, listing, restructuring) where labour compliance is part of due diligence. A lawyer or labour auditor structures the audit, ties it to the underlying records, and prepares the corrective action plan.