Sale of vehicles almost double

KATHMANDU, AUG 10 - Breaking all past records, the sale of vehicles increased by a whopping 96.73 percent during the last fiscal year 2009-10. The rise was aided by heavy sale of motorcycles across the country.

According to the Department of Transport Management, a total of 201,787 units of vehicles including 168,707 motorcycles were registered during the last fiscal in 13 zonal transport offices, while the registration in the previous fiscal year was 102,570.

In the fiscal year 2008-09, 83,334 units of motorcycles were traded across the country.


Anil Gurung, director at the department, said the sale of vehicles across the country almost doubled due to the increased purchasing power supported by remittance and general people’s attraction to vehicles, specially two-wheelers. “The sale of bikes has increased heavily. If there was no financial crisis, the sales would have gone up further,” he added. Of the total vehicles registered during the last fiscal, 14,388 units were jeep, car, van and micro buses, 11,460 tractor and power tailors, nine tempos, 5,857 bus, truck and trippers, 1,335 dozer, loader, dumper, crane and excavators and 31 units of other vehicles.

Saurabh Jyoti, vice-president of the Nepal Automobile Dealers’ Association (NADA), said the sale of four-wheelers went down by 50 percent during the final four months of the last fiscal due to the financial crisis.

“Banks increased the interest rate by up to 16 percent from the 8 or 9 percent earlier, which pushed down the sales,” said Jyoti. “However, the sale of bikes increased significantly as the vehicle has become a basic need.”

In the zone-wise registration of vehicles, Bagmati being a major market registered 82,204 vehicles, up by 64.11 percent as compared to 50,090 during the fiscal year 2008-09. Narayani registered 35,673 units of vehicles, up from 30,432, Lumbini registered 25,402 units, Koshi registered 20,330, up from 1,377 units and Gandaki registered 9,930 vehicles, up from 5,659 units in the previous fiscal year, according to the department.

“The sales of four-wheelers did not increase as expected following the financing problems and cash crunch,” said Gopi Krishna Neupane, spokesperson of NADA.

“Only around 7,000 light four-wheelers were sold in the Bagmati Zone. The number was expected to cross the 8,000 mark, given the urbanization and population growth.”  Bagmati Zone registered a total of 12,720 units of light and heavy four-wheelers.