KATHMANDU, APRIL 19
Amidst continuous propagation that the government will prioritise use of domestic manufactured products, lack of regulations for registering vehicles manufactured in the country has led to constant friction between traffic authorities and owners of such automobiles and forced manufacturers to halt production.
According to the Department of Transport Management, regulations for registration of Nepal-made vehicles have been sent to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and they are awaiting government decision.
"Laws related to transport management were made when there were no domestic vehicle manufacturers. In the light of recent issues regarding registering domestic made vehicles, the department has already submitted a related directive to the MoPIT and is awaiting the green light for its implementation," informed Ishwari Dutt Paneru, spokesperson for the DoTM, adding that the registration process of Nepal-made vehicles will continue smoothly after the government endorses the directive.
While Section 20 of the Motor Vehicles and Transport Management Act 2019 for Bagmati Province mentions the registration of domestically manufactured and assembled vehicles, the protocol for submitting import notification letter received from the customs clearance office at the Transport Management Office for registration procedure has confused vehicle manufacturers and government authorities.
As the P-1 model, made by Yatri Motorcycles was developed inside the country, the company only has notification letters of raw and unprocessed parts and a certain percentage of off-theshelf components that are imported for manufacturing purposes. The company was registered at the Office of Company Registrar in December 2017 to develop electric vehicles in the country. While the company has already produced over 80 units of the P-1 model and passed the roadworthiness test along with the certificate to be able to register and operate the P-1 vehicles in Nepal, the hurdle in registration due to lack of policies has demotivated manufacturers.
"Despite the company submitting the notification of all imported raw materials at the TMO, officials are not sure how to proceed due to lack of clear regulations," Thakur Paudel, technology director at Yatri Motorcycles informed THT.
According to him, because of the registration issue, the company's business operations have been affected, which is draining the company's finances as production has been halted since September last year.
Paudel also said that while the law has paved the way for producing and driving Nepal-made vehicles, lack of laws related to ownership had made owners of such vehicles wary due to regular disagreements with traffic authorities.
MoPIT officials were not available for comment despite repeated attempts to contact them regarding the issue.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 20, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
