Vehicle registration down 20 percent

KATHMANDU, Feb 25: Vehicle registration dropped by 19.8 percent over the first half of fiscal year 2013/14 compared to figures of the same period last year.

A total of 102,579 new vehicles were registered with zonal transport offices across the country, down from 127,933 registered in the same period of last fiscal year.

According to the Department of Transport Management (DoTM), vehicle registration fell in the review period due to drop in registration of two-wheelers. “As purchasing power of people has increased and also bank financing have become accessible, people are slowly shifting to four-wheelers, especially small cars,” Sudarsan Dhakal, director general of DoTM, told Republica.

Statistics of DoTM shows registration of two-wheelers went down by 20 percent, while registration of four-wheelers increased by 1.4 percent. A total of 87,128 units of two-wheelers were registered across the country in the first six months of 2013/14. Similarly, registration of four-wheelers during the period stood at 5,721 units.
“Banks and financial institutions have introduced easy financing at low interest rates. This is encouraging many people to shift to four-wheelers,” Dhakal said.

Mukti KC, director of DoTM, said strict driving skill test for two-wheelers is the other reason behind drop in sale of two-wheelers. “Both written examination and driving skill test have been made strict. This has resulted to drop in two-wheelers sale,” KC added. “Earlier, people used to buy two-wheelers and go for driving skill test. The trend is just opposite now.”
Automobile dealers also say the market of four-wheelers is expanding in recent months. “Though overall automobile sales is falling, four-wheelers sale is on the rise,” Santosh Khatiwada, marketing manager of Sipradi Trading, said.

Sipradi Trading is the authorized distributor of Tata Motors in Nepal.
Officials of Nepal Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) are hopeful that sales of both four-wheelers and two-wheelers will grow further in the coming days. “As the country his heading toward political stability, we are hopeful that it will make positive impact on automobile sector,” Shekhar Golchha, president of NADA, said.

Registration of new buses declined by 45 percent to 1,000 units in the review period. Similarly, registration of vehicles under minibus/mini truck category was also down by 37.4 percent to 505 units.

Source: REPUBLICA