Urja Khabar
Kathmandu; Nepal imported more than 1,000 units of electric vehicles (EVs) in the first four months of the current fiscal year.
The records with the Department of Customs (DoC) show around 300 units of the EVs were imported just in the past one month. Most of the imported EVs were with a capacity of less than 100 kW.
Through the budget announcement, the government has reduced the customs rate on imported EVs that have a capacity of less than 100 kW, while increasing taxes on the high-end EVs. The imports of the green energy based vehicles has surged mainly due to the government’s soft corner on these transport, ban on import of luxury vehicles, increased awareness among the people towards environment depletion, increased price of petroleum products and rise in living standards of the people, according to Dhruba Thapa, president of Nepal Automobile Dealers’ Association.
During the review period, Nepal spent Rs 2.86 billion on the import of the aforementioned number of EVs. Similarly, the government collected revenue of Rs 826.20 million from the imported EVs.
The government has removed customs duties on the import of EVs of up to 100 kW capacities. However, an excise duty of 15 percent is levied on such vehicles. For EVs between 100-200 kW, both customs duty and excise duty are slapped at the rate of 30 percent each.
For EVs of 200-300 kW, the 45 percent each of customs duty and excise duty are imposed. Likewise, the rate of these taxes is each 60 percent for EVs of more than 300 kW.
The landlocked country imported 1,805 electric four-wheelers in fiscal year 2021/22.
