Karnali Province's industry and tourism ministry collects nearly Rs 150 million revenue in a year

Karnali Province's Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment collected nearly Rs 150 million in revenue in fiscal year 2082/83 BS.

According to Ministry Secretary Ajit Kumar Karna, a large share of the revenue collected under 15 different headings came from the forest sector.

About Rs 127.6 million was collected from the forest sector and about Rs 21.2 million from the industry sector.

Forest royalties alone brought in about Rs 58.5 million, while other forest sector income contributed about Rs 55.4 million.

Tourism fees, however, brought in only about Rs 1.1 million.

Rental income from government property amounted to about Rs 1.6 million.

According to the ministry's own data, about 541,000 domestic and foreign tourists visited Karnali's tourist destinations over the past seven fiscal years.

The largest number, about 294,000, visited Bulbule Lake in Surkhet, while about 140,000 visited the Province Martyrs' Park.

Although Karnali has potential for natural, religious, cultural and adventure tourism, some multi-year tourism infrastructure projects are progressing slowly.

Despite investments worth hundreds of millions of rupees, the physical progress of these projects has not been satisfactory, the ministry itself has said.