Jul 14, Kathmandu: The ban imposed by the government on the import of vehicles with combustion engines and motorcycles above 250 ccs is ending on July 19.

It seems that imports will be opened automatically if the Council of Ministers does not decide to impose further restrictions before that time. In a meeting with the representatives of the NADA Automobiles Association of Nepal, Industry, Commerce, and Supply Minister Dilendra Prasad Badu said that the import of vehicles and motorcycles will be opened after the end of June. On the same basis, it can be easily understood that the government is preparing to open the import after that time period.

The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply had decided to ban imports till the end of the current year by publishing a notice in the gazette on April 26. When the said time period is about to end, it seems almost certain that the importation will be opened due to the silence of the government agencies.

The businessmen were meeting the Prime Minister and the then Finance Minister and even the Governor of the Rashtra Bank and pressuring them to open the import. NADA President Dhruv Thapa said that the import will resume after the deadline set by the government.

Stating that the automobile business completely collapsed when the import of cars and motorcycles was stopped, he expressed his sorrow that if the import is not opened even after the deadline, the businessmen will be forced to put a lock on the showroom. He said that the ban on imports is only valid for 3 days and there is no information about extending it so far, so they are very hopeful that imports will resume.

NADA, which was unable to organize the previous two auto shows due to the Corona epidemic, has started preparations to organize the auto show from August 7 this year. This organization is under pressure to open up imports and even to sell new vehicles at the show.

After the ban on imports, businessmen are not able to import new vehicles of various brands from other countries including India. More than a dozen new cars have been launched in India alone in this period of about three months since the ban started, while businessmen who have started preparing to import cars from third countries have also had to stop the import.