KATHMANDU, July 26: Contribution of automobile sector to national exchequer has doubled in five years, thanks to increasing automobile imports.
Statistics of Department of Transport Management (DoTM) shows that the autombile sector, which generated Rs 6.07 billion tax and non-tax revenue to the government in 2011/12, contributed Rs 13.86 billion to the treasury in Fiscal Year 2015/16.
Government officials have attributed rise in revenue primarily to increasing number of vehicles in the country. “Boost in revenue is directly related to growing automobile imports,” Rammani Duwadi, deputy director general of Inland Revenue Department (IRD), said.
Statistics shows that more than 800,000 vehicles were registered in the past five years. Total number of vehicles registered in the country was 1.34 million units in 2011/12. It has risen to more than 2.14 million units in 2015/16.
Revenue contribution from the sector increased by an average of at least Rs 1 billion in the past five years. It increased by Rs 3.5 billion in 2014/15 compared to 2013/14.
Automobile dealers say that the automobile industry is growing at the rate of 25 percent annually. “Revenue from transportation sector is bound to grow in the coming years as well as the automobile market is seeing unprecedented growth,” Anjan Shrestha, president of Nepal Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), said.
According to Shrestha, automobile industry, which came down by 30 percent in 2011, has been growing at an average of 25 percent since then. He also said that increase in transportation revenue is also the result of increase in non-tax revenue to vehicles by the government every year.
Nearly 30% of govt revenue comes from automobile sector
