Although businessmen wanted to import around 25,000 vehicles during the period until November 15, when the government allowed the import of vehicles of the 'Euro 3' standard, only around 700 have been imported so far. A Finance Ministry source said that around 700 vehicles of the 'Euro 3' standard have been imported since the government lifted the import ban (last October 20).

There is only one week left before the deadline given by the government. However, the NADA Automobiles Association of Nepal and the Automobile Importers and Manufacturers Association (NAIMA) have stated that they have been able to import far fewer vehicles than they wanted to during this period. They say that very few have been imported due to the difficulty of importing many vehicles at once, the need for large capital, and the fact that letters of credit (LCs) have not been opened for importing many vehicles.

The previous government had implemented the Vehicle Pollution Standard 2082 after publishing a notification in the gazette on 23 Ashad. With this, ‘Euro Six’ was implemented for four-wheeled vehicles and ‘Euro Five’ for two-wheeled vehicles. The government had decided to stop the import of ‘Euro Three’ standard vehicles to control air pollution. However, businessmen had also been demanding that the government should be allowed to import vehicles that were in the process since the import of Euro Three was stopped without giving them time. 

At that time, NADA and NAIMA had submitted separate lists of vehicles that had already started the process of importing vehicles to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Forest and Environment. When the data from both lists is added, it appears that about 44,000 vehicles are in the process of being imported. However, the vehicles that some companies and entrepreneurs have started the process of importing are repeated in both lists (NADA and NAIMA). Thus, even though the repeated data is included in both lists, it seems that the entrepreneurs want to import about 25,716 vehicles. 

Accordingly, the Department of Transport Management has stated that out of the 25,500 two-, three- and four-wheeled vehicles to be imported, very few have been imported. Some had even canceled their orders in the meantime. Department Director Shrikant Yadav said that there is not much time left to import ‘Euro 3’ vehicles. Earlier, although entrepreneurs had stated that many vehicles were in the process of importing, the department said that very few had been imported. 

‘Approvals have been taken for seven hundred vehicles, some of which have already arrived, some are in the process of arriving,’ he said, ‘The import approval should be taken from the department, which does not need to specify the number. All the procedures have been completed, the department will give approval only after looking at whether they have.’ He said that all the vehicles approved should have entered Nepal by 15 Mangsir.

At the request of the businessmen, the government gave a short time to bring vehicles for which a proforma invoice (PI) has already been issued, said Akash Golchha, a central member of NADA. ‘Those who had vehicles that had already been issued a PI, they were able to bring them,’ he said, ‘This is good, many have not yet opened the letter of credit (LC) for the vehicles they ordered.’ The government has given a discount until 15 Mangsir for the import of vehicles for which a PI has been issued. While a PI is just a kind of quotation. ‘Every time we open a letter of credit (LC), we need a PI, and the bank opens the LC on that basis,’ said Golchha. ‘We order the vehicle and open the LC, which takes time.’ 

After the implementation of ‘Euro Six’ for four-wheelers and ‘Euro Five’ for two-wheelers, it was not possible to import the ‘Euro Three’ vehicles that had already been ordered, so Golchha said that he had requested the government to allow them to bring them at a specified time. ‘Many vehicles were ordered,’ he said, ‘We had also asked to cancel the order in between, as many as were canceled, and those that were not canceled have arrived now.’ He said that although there are more two-wheelers, the arrival time has been less.

Although the government has allowed imports until 15 Mangsir, only very few entrepreneurs have imported vehicles, said Naima President Ritu Singh Baidya. "If you talk about individual businesses, we had started the process of bringing 76 units, but we canceled the order because we did not have enough time," she said. "Some businessmen may have brought them, but I have received information that many have canceled the order." She said that more vehicles may come as there is still time left for import.

Rajendra Prasad Mishra of the Ministry of Forests and Environment said that permission was given to bring only vehicles for which a 'proforma invoice' was issued before 9 Ashar. We were told that we would open the letter of credit (LC) late, the 'proforma invoice' (PI) had already been issued, and based on that, we would be allowed to bring the vehicles," he said. "Then, the decision to allow the import was made by looking at the PI and according to that, it was opened as per the decision of the Council of Ministers. We did not look at any individual or company and made a recommendation." He said that the ministry had not taken the application and that the number of vehicles of the 'Euro 3' standard had been known only after 15 Mangsir.