Kathmandu, August 1

Revenue collection from vehicle tax in fiscal year 2016-17 surged by 47 per cent compared to the previous fiscal.

Department of Transport Management (DoTM) today revealed that it collected vehicle tax worth Rs 20 billion under different headings in 2016-17 compared to Rs 13.8 billion collected in 2015-16.

However, revenue amount does not include customs and excise duty levied on vehicles at customs offices during import. It only includes vehicle taxes imposed by DoTM and collected from Transport Management Offices under headings like automobile tax, road maintenance fee, licence and vehicle ownership card fee, service charge, among others.

Out of total revenue, DoTM collected over Rs 17 billion from automobile tax and road maintenance fee in 2016-17. It was able to collect Rs 8.7 billion from automobile tax and Rs 8.5 billion under road maintenance fee.

In 2015-16, DoTM had collected Rs seven billion and Rs 5.4 billion under automobile tax and road maintenance tax, respectively.

According to DoTM officials, this increase in vehicle revenue is primarily due to increasing number of vehicles in the country.

Though DoTM is yet to reveal annual automobile registration data of 2016-17, officials at the department said auto import has been increasing dramatically in recent years.

“The revenue is certain to go up along with increasing number of vehicles in the country. In 2016-17 too, automobile registration exceeded the mark of the previous year,” said Tok Raj Pandey, spokesperson for DoTM.

Auto import, as per DoTM officials, is increasing by almost 20 per cent annually in recent years and an average of 300,000 vehicles are imported in Nepal every year.

DoTM statistics show that almost 1.5 million vehicles had been registered in the country until fiscal 2012-13. However, with increasing trend of people buying vehicles due to easy financing facilities, number of vehicles has surged significantly. In the last four years alone, over one million vehicles were imported into the country as DoTM data shows that vehicle registration has already crossed the 2.6 million mark.