The import of unassembled motorbikes into Nepal has increased by 89 percent in the first four months of the current fiscal year, compared to the same time period of the preceding fiscal year.

According to the data maintained by the Department of Customs (DoC), Nepali two-wheeler assembly plant owners imported 50,678 unassembled motorbikes from mid-July to mid-November in Fiscal Year 2024/25, up 23,877 motorbikes from 26,801 unassembled motorbikes imported in the same period of Fiscal Year 2023/24.

The customs revenue from the unassembled two-wheelers increased by 92 percent in the review period of the current fiscal year. The DoC collected around Rs 6 billion in revenue from the import of unassembled motorbikes in the first four months of the current fiscal year, compared to just Rs 3.16 billion collected in the same period of last fiscal year.

A sharp growth in the import of unassembled motorbikes has been observed in Nepal since the government incentivized assembly plant owners with a provision included in the Finance Act, 2078 BS, which provided 50 percent exemption on the excise duty levied on the import of unassembled two-wheelers and four-wheelers.

According to experts, the growth in the number of imported unassembled motorbikes has a multidimensional positive effect as it increases employment through the operation of assembly plants, strengthens the foreign currency reserves and helps assuage the sharp spike in the prices of motorbikes in the Nepali market.

Former secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Purushottam Ojha told Republica that the ‘inverse tariff’ structure on the raw or intermediary materials compared to the finished products encourages the manufacturing sector of Nepal. “On the one hand, we can check the outflow from the foreign currency reserves by importing unassembled products at cheaper prices than assembled ones,” he said, “On the other, the manufacturing sector is revitalized, creating more jobs and increasing the value-added tax in the process.” He added that the manufacturing sector is also incentivized to export finished products after assembling them within the country.

Assembled motorbike imports up by 42 pc

Meanwhile, the import of assembled motorbikes saw an increase of 42 percent in the first four months of the current fiscal year compared to the same period of the last fiscal year. The DoC data shows an increase of 9,165 assembled motorbikes from 22,006 motorbikes imported from mid-July to mid-November of Fiscal Year 2023/24 to 31,171 assembled motorbikes imported in the same period of Fiscal Year 2024/25.

The excise duty collected by the DoC from the import of assembled two-wheelers increased by around 54 percent in the review period. The government collected around Rs 4 billion in revenue from the import of assembled motorbikes (excluding electric motorbikes) in the four months of the current fiscal year, up from Rs 2.6 billion collected in the review period of the preceding year.

Electric bike imports up by 44 pc

In the first four months of the current fiscal year, the import of electric bikes too saw a significant increment as the number of such bikes surged by 44 percent, compared to that in the same period of the last fiscal year, increasing the customs revenue by Rs 50 million. According to the DoC, Nepal imported 3,021 units of electric bikes from mid-July to mid-November, up from 2,100 in the same period of the preceding fiscal year. This increased imports amounted to around Rs 114 million in excise duty in the current fiscal year.