Kathmandu’s Cooperative Crisis Deepens as 6,300 Savers Demand 4.77 Billion Rupees Back

More than 6,300 depositors have formally asked Kathmandu Metropolitan City to help recover their savings from troubled cooperatives, with total claims now reaching about 4.77 billion rupees. The majority of individual complaints involve deposits between 100,000 and 500,000 rupees, according to Dhruva Kumar Kafle, head of the city’s Cooperative Department.

The latest figures highlight how widespread the cooperative savings crisis has become in Kathmandu. Official refund efforts have already begun at the national level for victims of problematic cooperatives, but the volume of claims in the capital shows that many savers are still waiting for answers, and in many cases, for their money to come back.

A growing queue of frustrated depositors

The complaint count has crossed 6,300, and the claimed amount has climbed to billions of rupees, suggesting that the problem is not limited to a few isolated cases. The department says most of the complainants are ordinary depositors with moderate savings rather than large investors, which makes the financial impact especially severe for households that depended on these funds for daily expenses, emergencies, or long-term security.

According to the department, the bulk of the complaints fall into the 100,000 to 500,000 rupee range. That detail matters because it sits squarely in the zone that often represents family savings, retirement reserves, and hard-earned cash accumulated over years.

Why the cooperative issue keeps spreading

Nepal’s cooperative sector has faced a deep credibility crisis, with government and media reports describing large-scale mismanagement and fraud across multiple institutions. National-level refund mechanisms are now being rolled out for depositors in cooperatives officially declared problematic, but the amount owed remains massive and the number of affected savers remains high.

Recent reporting has said that around 76,000 depositors may need refunds totaling roughly 46 billion rupees, with the first phase focused on small depositors. That broader context helps explain why Kathmandu’s latest complaint figures are so significant: they are part of a much larger national financial disruption.

What the refund plan looks like

The government has started returning money to some victims, beginning with smaller depositors in the first phase. Reports say the initial refunds are aimed at depositors with up to 10,000 rupees, while later phases will gradually expand the refund ceiling, though only part of the eligible amount is expected to be returned at each stage.

That phased approach is designed to prioritize smaller savers first, but it also shows the limits of the current recovery system. With liabilities far exceeding available funds, full repayment for everyone is unlikely to happen quickly, if at all, without stronger asset recovery and broader reform.

Why this matters beyond Kathmandu

For Kathmandu residents, the complaint surge is more than a bureaucratic statistic. It is a sign of how trust in local savings institutions has eroded, and how deeply cooperative failures can affect middle- and lower-income households. The city department’s role is now less about routine oversight and more about managing the fallout from a crisis that has already wiped out confidence for thousands of savers.

As more depositors file claims, the pressure on authorities will only grow. The key questions now are how quickly refunds can be processed, how much can realistically be recovered from the cooperatives’ assets and borrowers, and whether the system can be rebuilt strongly enough to prevent another wave of losses.