KATHMANDU, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- As Nepal's major festival season is around the corner, the annual NADA Auto Show kicked off in the capital Kathmandu on Tuesday which is expected to help boost sales of vehicles during the festival season.
Nepal's biggest festival--Dashain-- will begin in just a month which will be followed by Tihar, the festival of light, in two week time after the end of Dashain. There is a tradition of purchasing new things and valuables during these festivals.
In order to cash in on the spending spree during the festival season, automobile sellers of the country have been organizing the auto show every year.
It is the 11th auto show organized by Nepal Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), the umbrella body of vehicle and their accessory sellers.
Nepal's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara inaugurated the six-day event on Tuesday. As many as 74 companies have put their vehicles and accessories brought from 30 countries on display in the expo. A total of 16 brands of four-wheelers, 15 brands of two-wheelers and five brands of heavy equipments have been displayed in the expo, according to NADA.
Accessories, spare parts, garage equipment and grease among others have also been showcased.
NADA President Anjan Shrestha told Xinhua that the auto exhibition organized just before the major festival season makes sense as about 40 percent of annual sales of automobiles take place during this month-long festival season.
"It is not that all the vehicles are sold during the expo but customers take information about vehicles during the event which might realize in sales until the festival season ends," he said.
Many banks have also participated in expo offering auto loans at cheaper interest rates.
As Nepal's banks are heavily liquid, they have been able to provide loans at interest rate as low as six percent. Nepal's automobile sector saw record sales of 343,765 in the last fiscal year 2015-16 that ended in mid-July as sales grew by 43 percent on year on year basis, according to the government's statistics.
Vehicle sellers are very much optimistic about the prospect of sales in the current fiscal year 2016-17 after finding that sales grew by record number in the last fiscal when they had to struggle to import vehicles during four and half month long blockade in southern border points.
"The situation has remained normal so far compared to last year which has grown our expectation for this year," said Shrestha, whose firm--Laxmi Intercontinental Private Limited, is the authorized dealer of Hyundai Motors in Nepal. "Growing urbanization, remittance, easy bank financing with lower interest rates and poor public transport have fueled the demand for personal vehicles."
Nepal's economy is heavily import-based and vehicles and their accessories contributed 32 percent of total customs revenue for the Nepalese government in the last fiscal year, according to Nepal's Department of Customs.
Nepal imposes over 200 percent duties on imported vehicle including custom duty, excise duty and value added tax.
