While the investigation into the electric vehicles (EVs) imported from Rasuwa and Mustang is ongoing, the Ministry of Finance has clarified that all the vehicles have been inspected and passed the inspection in a proper manner. The investigation committee, under the coordination of Bhupal Raj Shakya, Director of the Customs Department under the Ministry of Finance, is working on the vehicles imported from Korala, Mustang, and another director, Surendra Pandey, under the coordination of Rasuwa, but the report has not yet been received.

 According to the source, the study report is being prepared. However, without submitting the report, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle's personal undersecretary and public relations advisor Navin Dhungana has stated in a press release that all the electric vehicles have been inspected and passed the inspection in a proper manner. 'At the beginning of the budget, more than 200 electric vehicles from Rasuwa and 649 from Korala entered Nepal through the old and regular import process,' the press release said. 'The issue that the businessmen importing these vehicles have received information from the budget-making body that the customs duty will increase or decrease is baseless.' 

A company named Laxmi E-Mobility (Kathmandu) imported Kayi brand vehicles from the Rasuwa Customs Office and the customs duty on all these vehicles has been reduced due to the budget arrangement, the press release states. ‘If they had received information about the reduction in customs duty, those importers would not have imported vehicles to Nepal at the old high rates, causing losses to themselves. It would have been beneficial for them to import vehicles only after the budget,’ the press release states. ‘However, the ministry has changed the responsibilities of the employees involved in the customs clearance process for further investigation in this regard and a new customs officer has been assigned to the Rasuwa Customs Office.’

Before the budget statement for the fiscal year 2083/84 was made public, the Armed Police Force (APF) had seized the electric vehicles that had been cleared through customs at the Korala and Rasuwagadhi checkpoints on suspicion of leaking information regarding the change in tax rates. The vehicles have not been released yet. ‘The ministry’s investigation has shown that these vehicles were imported regularly and legally according to the letter of credit (LC) opened by the importers through banks,’ the statement said. ‘Due to the provisions in the budget of 15 Jestha, the duty on some vehicles imported by the importers has increased and on others, the duty has decreased.’ 

The Ministry of Finance has stated that the vehicles were imported regularly based on the preliminary report even before the report came out, saying that rumors were being spread in the market regarding vehicle imports. ‘A total of 4,317 electric vehicles were imported from 1 to 14 Jestha of the previous year,’ the statement issued by Dhungana said. ‘Since 2,764 vehicles were imported this year, there is no need to exaggerate about the imported electric vehicles in this regard.’ 

The goods placed in the ‘yellow lane’ at the customs point at Rasuwa border are not physically inspected. The goods are inspected based on their documents. The statement mentions that the responsibility of the employees has been changed for further investigation regarding whether the vehicles passed the inspection before they arrived. When asked whether they formed a committee to investigate, whether it was in accordance with the rules, and whether this was not a contradiction, Amrit Lamsal, Joint Secretary and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance, said, “The teams of the Rasuwa and Korala checkpoint investigation committee have already arrived. When the teams from both sides initially informed the ministry, it seems that the vehicles were brought in in a regular manner.” He said that more clarity will be obtained after the full report comes out. “The report has not come out yet, it is being finalized,” he said, “However, there was confusion in the market and questions started to arise. Therefore, we have clarified based on the preliminary information provided by the study committee even before the full report was prepared. It seems that the vehicles entered in a regular manner.” According to a statement issued by Dhungana, the Finance Minister’s personal undersecretary, BYD vehicles entered Nepal from Korala checkpoint from 8 Jestha to 13. All these cars are BYD Auto One and Auto Two, the statement said. According to the statement, 51 BYD vehicles were imported to Nepal on 8th Jestha, 110 on 9th, 90 on 10th, 270 on 11th, 69 on 12th and 59 on 13th Jestha.