How to Read a Nepal Government Tender Notice: A Field-by-Field Guide

A tender notice is short, printed in small type, and often published in a newspaper you do not read every day. Yet a single missed line — a deadline in the Nepali calendar, a bid security amount, a submission method — can cost you the bid. This guide walks through the fields that matter, in the order a contractor or supplier should check them.

Tender in Nepal is an independent service, not affiliated with the Government of Nepal or the Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO). Always check the original notice. Last checked: 17 October 2026.

First, what kind of notice is it?

The headline tells you the route to the contract. The names you will meet most:

• Invitation for Bids (IFB) / Notice Inviting Tender — a competitive bidding for works or goods. "NCB" in the reference number usually means national competitive bidding.
• Sealed quotation — a lighter process for smaller purchases; the notice states the limits and documents.
• Expression of Interest (EOI) — the first step for consulting work. The entity shortlists firms; you do not submit a price yet.
• Request for Proposal (RFP) — shortlisted firms submit technical and financial proposals.
• Prequalification — the entity screens bidders before inviting bids.
• Re-invitation / re-bid — the earlier attempt did not succeed (for example too few bids) and the entity is trying again.

Not every notice is a call for bids. Amendments, deadline extensions, cancellations, notices of intent to award and award results exist as notices of their own. Tender in Nepal lets you browse these by type — see amendments.

The eight fields to check, in this order

1. Procuring entity and what is being bought

Confirm the office, the location of the work or delivery, and the scope in one sentence. If you cannot say what is being bought after reading the headline and first paragraph, read the full bidding document before spending money on it.

2. The reference or contract number

Notices carry an identifier (for example an IFB or contract number). Write it down. When the entity later amends, extends or cancels, the follow-up notice is matched to the original only by this number and the office name. People who save only the headline lose track of changes.

3. Deadlines — all of them

A notice can contain several dates:

• Last date to buy or download the bidding document.
• Last date and clock time to submit the bid. Some 2026 notices set a clock time such as 12:00 and state that late bids will be rejected.
• Date and time of bid opening.
• A pre-bid meeting date, if any.

How long should you have? Since the 2026 amendment, the Public Procurement Act (दफा 14, 40) requires at least 21 days for a national tender, 7 days for a national re-invitation and 7 days for a sealed quotation notice. These are minimums; the dates printed on the notice govern. The practical lesson: find notices early. Our guide to the 2026 amendment has the full table.

Calendar warning. Dates may be printed in Bikram Sambat (BS) or in AD. Tender in Nepal shows the AD date and, for BS notices, the date as printed. Check both against a calendar before you plan your submission day. If a deadline falls on a government holiday, the bidding document may move it to the next working day — read the document's own wording.

4. Bid security (बोलपत्र जमानत)

Look for the amount, the form it must take (for example a bank guarantee) and how long it must remain valid. Standard sealed-quotation bidding documents have asked for bid security to stay valid for 30 days beyond the bid validity period, but the notice and bidding document govern — use their figure, not a rule of thumb from the internet.

Why it matters: under the Public Procurement Act (दफा 21), bid security is forfeited if you ask to modify or withdraw your bid after the time allowed for doing so (for paper bids, 24 hours before the submission deadline, दफा 19), refuse to accept the correction of an arithmetic error, fail to sign the contract after being selected, or do not provide performance security in time. It is returned once the contract is concluded.

5. Bidding document fee

Most notices state a non-refundable fee and where it is paid. Note whether it is payable at the office or online, and the last date.

6. Eligibility and experience

Notices summarise requirements — typically legal registration, tax registration, similar past work, turnover and key equipment or staff. A summary is not the full list. Download the bidding document and read the qualification section before you commit.

7. How to submit

The notice says how to submit: electronically through the PPMO's e-GP system, or as a sealed physical bid delivered to a named address. Submitting on the wrong channel is a common avoidable disqualification. If a notice names e-GP, confirm with the procuring office, well before the deadline, that the system is accepting bids.

8. Contact and corrections

Use the contact on the notice for clarifications and note the date you asked. If the notice is later amended, ask the entity for the amendment and keep it.

A 2-minute pre-bid checklist

• Do I understand the work and the location?
• Reference number saved?
• Every date in my calendar (document purchase, submission with time, opening, pre-bid)?
• Bid security amount, form and validity noted?
• Document fee and where to pay?
• Do I meet experience and turnover requirements?
• e-GP or physical submission?
• Have I checked for amendments, extensions or cancellations?

Why the original matters

Newspaper notices are small, and details are easy to misread. On every Tender in Nepal notice page you can open the original notice image next to the extracted facts. Values such as category, deadline or office are identified automatically from the notice and can be wrong or missing, so treat the image and the official bidding document as the final word. Found a mistake? Tell us at the corrections page.

Start with the open tenders

Browse current works and goods notices, or filter by province and "apply before" date to see what is closing soon. It is free and needs no sign-up.