What Are the Rules for AI Outbound Calls in Nepal?

Short answer: Nepal's Privacy Act, 2075 (2018) puts consent at the centre of using personal information, a summary of the National Penal Code, 2074 says recording a conversation without the consent of those involved is barred, and a summary by DLA Piper says advertisement-oriented SMS or email cannot be sent without consent. We found no published rule from the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) on telemarketing, calling hours or AI-voiced calls, so treat those as unsettled. You are responsible for following the rules; ThinnestAI does not screen numbers against any register. This is not legal advice, and everything below was read from public sources on 25 October 2026.

What does the Privacy Act say?

The Individual Privacy Act, 2075 (2018) took effect on 18 September 2018, and the Individual Privacy Regulation, 2077 sits under it. Law-firm summaries say it requires consent and notice of the purpose when personal information is collected, and that personal information includes telephone numbers. According to the DLA Piper overview, no data-protection authority has been designated; complaints go to the district court or, for some offences, the police. One summary says a complaint should be filed in the District Court within three months of the incident, which we have not checked against the Act. Read the Act on the Nepal Law Commission website.

Can you record the call?

A secondary summary says section 293 of the National Penal Code, 2074 bars using any mechanical device to record a conversation between two or more people without the consent of those involved or authorisation from the relevant authority. We have not read the section ourselves, so we state no more than that. The practical answer: say in your opening line that the call may be recorded, and keep recording off unless you need it. Recording is a per-agent switch in ThinnestAI and it is off by default.

What about marketing messages and calls?

DLA Piper's overview says an advertisement-oriented SMS or email cannot be sent to a person without that person's consent, citing the Advertisement Act and its Regulation. We did not find a Nepali rule that speaks to calls or WhatsApp, so do not read more into it than it says: get consent for anything promotional on any channel and keep proof.

On the telecom side, the recent NTA public warnings we found concern unauthorised international SMS routing and licensing, and a state operator's warning to value-added-service providers about offensive bulk messages. None of them is a marketing-consent rule.

What could we verify, and what could we not?

What should you do in practice?

1. Start with inbound. Answering your own calls is different from cold calling. See where to start.
2. Call people who expect you: customers with a booking or order, people who asked for a callback, and people who gave you their number for that purpose.
3. Say who is calling, why, and that it is an AI in the opening line. You write it. See telling callers they are talking to AI.
4. Mention recording in the opening line, and keep it off unless you need it.
5. Keep your own do-not-contact list and add anyone who asks to stop, immediately.
6. Set calling hours per campaign on the called person's clock. The platform sets no window of its own, so pick considerate hours and check with your adviser.
7. Keep proof of opt-in for WhatsApp marketing messages. See WhatsApp opt-in rules.

Which language will the agent call in?

On the international deployment, voice agents speak English and Hindi, not Nepali. Nepali voice is on our India deployment; write to hello@thinnest.ai if outbound Nepali calls are what you need.

What should you do next?

Take these points to a Nepali lawyer before any marketing campaign, and read the Acts themselves. For the product side, see the Nepal page, voice campaigns and how a business in Nepal can use an AI phone agent. The AI receptionist page covers the inbound side.