Kathmandu, May 11 -- When Prime Minister Balendra Shah filed his mandatory asset disclosure, one line stood out: he listed Rs 14.6 million in cash and identified his primary income sources as Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. His 4.6 million Facebook followers, 1.3 million YouTube subscribers, and 465,000 TikTok followers, he said, were the engines behind that wealth.

The disclosure sparked an obvious question - can social media followers actually be listed as an asset? Nepal Rastra Bank spokesperson Guru Prasad Paudel says yes, at least within existing regulatory language. "The Rastra Bank has a category for audiovisual and related services under which remittances can be received," Paudel told Kantipur. "What the prime minister has describ...