Lawmakers found fault with the government’s decision to impose more tax on electric vehicles.

They said the decision is in contrast to the aim of achieving self-reliance in the energy sector and will also increase the trade deficit.

The budget announced on May 28, 2020, called for the removal of concessions and subsidies, along with increasing customs duties and VAT on electric vehicle imports.

“It will facilitate the import of fossil-fuel-based vehicles and hence contradicts the government norms to promote green development, just to benefit a handful of automobiles importers,” said Lawmaker Prem Suwal during the budget session.

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The government raised the customs duty on imported products from 30 percent to 80 percent and from 5 percent to 80 percent on excise duty, respectively.

This is likely to show a significant impact on the pricing of electric vehicles.

“On the one hand, the government talks about increasing domestic consumption of electricity, while on the other, the government action is not consistent with its policy,” says MP Pampha Bhusal.

Lawmakers also pointed at the government’s new provisions pertaining to electricity consumption.

On Power Tariffs

They said the new provisions would not help the government raise the power consumption target from 267 units at present to 700 units.

Apart from tax revisions, the Nepal Electricity Authority has also thought of increasing power tariffs on the lines of automating and boost management costs.

The new taxation will impose an additional 10-15 tariff burden on industries and 5 percent cost on the commercial sector for power utilization.

Employment and Financial Planning

Lawmakers also the budget of failing to address employment and financial resource planning.

“The budget has very little to do with creating job opportunities at a time when around 400,000 people from the domestic job market along with tens of thousands of people returning from foreign employment are likely to remain unemployed in the near future,” says Krishna Prasad Dahal.

They also raised doubts about financial resource planning, i.e., which is less by NPR 58.33 billion of the funds allocated in the current fiscal.

The government announced plans to mobilize Rs 889.62 billion in revenue while expecting Rs 60.52 billion in foreign aid.

The remaining Rs 524.5 billion will be raised from external debt (Rs 299.5 billion) and domestic borrowing (Rs 225 billion).

Electric vehicle charging station in the premises of NEA in Ratnapark, Kathmandu.

“In addition, the government has kept over expectation on receiving foreign grants and loans to finance the set programs in the budget as there is a slim chance that the donors will materialize their commitments in the wake of the ongoing global crisis,” Lawmaker Minendra Rijal said.

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We have seen many instances in the recent past till the most recent one, where PM KP Sharma Oli has also launched a fleet of electric vehicles couple of days back.

Here comes another major achievement that Nepal made with regard to adopting green solutions.

In a recent update, young Nepali researchers Sagar Kafle and Nirina Khadgi received a rare honor in the form of the Green Talents Award 2018 from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) of Germany.

Under the patronage of the Minister of BMBF, the Green Talents Award has been honoring talented researchers since 2009 and provides young scientists with a platform for sharing their views on green concepts to make the world a better place.

The 2018 edition of the awards saw a high-ranking jury of experts selecting 25 up-and-coming researchers from among the 736 applicants from more than 100 countries.

Sagar and Nirina were shortlisted from Nepal location!

Sagar- A Resident of Biratnagar

Sagar works as a Lecturer at Purwanchal Campus, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Dharan.

After receiving a Master’s Degree from South Korea, Sagar’s strong desire to work for the homeland brought him back to the country.

Besides teaching, Sagar is also an influencer who motivates the youth in research besides organizing discussion forums as a platform for researches and policy makers for formulation of research and green energy friendly policy in the country.

The Green Talent Award winner is also the fellow member of the Asian Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs (AIDIA), Nepal’s foreign policy think-tank.

Sagar is currently working to establish a large-scale ‘fuel pellet plant in Nepal’, the pellet having identical properties as coal, can be used as coal in the Cement and Brick Industries.

His idea of the ‘Green Coal Pellet’ has also topped the Climate Launchpad national competition and the idea is representing the country in grand final in Scotland this year on first week of November.

Nirina- Resident of Kathmandu

Nirina is the Environmental Science Graduate from the Central Department of Environment Science, Tribhuvan University and is currently pursuing PhD in Hohai University of China.

Concerns over chemicals that go unregulated and often untreated in streams causing a huge impact in the water ecosystem and health moved Nirina.

Eventually, she began her research on ways to enhance the efficiency of water treatment processes, not only to improve human health, but also to contribute to reduction in overall levels of pollution.

Nirina plans to increase the awareness about these chemicals in waters and bring the attention of the stakeholders towards formulating and implementing effective water regulation and developing treatment facilities.

Nirina is currently working on the treatment of water using an advanced technology that uses solar light.

A Rare Opportunity

As part of the awards, the two Nepalis got an opportunity to interact with the “Green Talents – International Forum for High Potentials in Sustainable Development” in Germany.

Besides, they also got a chance to visit other hotspots of green science in Eastern Germany, sustainability research elite and some of the country’s most renowned research institutions and companies, including Technical University of Dresden, the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research and the Institute for Social-Ecological Research in Frankfurt.

The award ceremony conducted at the Ministry hall was attended by representatives of the institutions, jury members, embassy representatives and other distinguished guests.

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Be it ramping up of hydropower projects adding to the country’s energy base, implementing ‘no-horn policy’ in Kathmandu, among others, Nepal is on pace for eco-friendly policies.

As a step ahead in the process, Nepal is also gearing up for early adoption of Electric Vehicles (EV) or green vehicles, which is in fact the high-priority task for most of the global nations.

Nepal’s former Finance Secretary Rameshore Khanal has some important information for us on Nepal’s willingness towards adoption of EVs.

“EVs will provide a measure of energy security for Nepal. As of now, the price of oil affects us in many ways, but when we switch to electric, the situation will be different,” says Khanal.

Khanal opines that the transition in Nepal for adoption of EVs will be quicker than in India.

“When there is disincentive to buy petrol-fueled cars, people will readily buy EVs. Whereas, in Nepal, there has been a voluntary adoption of EVs even when enough incentives are not in place,” he adds.

According to Khanal, Nepal has more charging stations per capita than India and has around 35 charging stations across the country.

Government Policies Can Take Ahead

According to Khanal, lack of standards and inadequate number of charging stations are two prime factors limiting EV adoption in Nepal.

The lack of proper governmental policies with regard to charging standard also remains another prime reason. “The government has not yet chosen the charging standard for electric cars. Government needs to choose one standard. This will encourage them to switch to EVs,” Khanal adds.

“With the right policies in place, we can achieve complete transition in 10 years. The transition for public vehicles will take longer but for private vehicles, we can do it in 10 years,” says Khanal.

Khanal further opined that there would be a day when petrol stations across the country will see a fall in business.

“So, my suggestion is that the government should make it mandatory for all petrol pumps in Nepal to set up a charging station for EVs. This will be a good investment as eventually, EVs will become the norm in Nepal,” he adds.

On a closing note, Khanal opines that the government should disincentivize the use of fossil fuel cars and should declare rural areas recently connected with the national road network and other areas like Singh Durbar, the administrative hub of the country, as ‘EV only zones’.

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