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The government has lifted the restrictions imposed on the import of vehicles including jeeps, cars, and vans, which has been in place since April 27, starting from Dec 16. However, this announcement has failed to quell the disquiet of automobile importers and dealers who have put forth several demands to the government as well as the central bank.   NADA Automobiles Association of Nepal, the umbrella organization of automobile importers and dealers in Nepal, announced to protest against the government even when the import ban was lifted on Dec 6. NADA office bearers say they will continue their protest until all of their demands are met. ApEx talked to Dhruba Thapa, president of the association in this context. Excerpts: The government has lifted import restrictions on the import of automobiles. Yet, NADA is on the street, continuing the protest. Why has NADA continued the agitation? Though the import restrictions have been lifted, there is no environment in terms of doing business. There has not been any support from the government and departments concerned. The 50 percent margin in opening the letter of credit (LC) for importing vehicles is still in place. That means, we have to deposit millions of rupees in the bank for months without any interest. This should be lifted too.  There is no risk in automobile financing, yet the loan-to-value ratio has been set at 150 percent. Due to this, the banks hesitate in automobile financing. Also, the Nepal Rastra Bank has made it mandatory for financial institutions that they can only look up to 50 percent of the financing in private vehicles. This too should be lifted as it should rely on banks-customers relations and trust. Hence, our protests are still going on.  What do the government and the central bank need to do to stop a further slump in the automobile market? As the automobile business has been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the recession, the government should help us to flourish by lifting all restrictions and providing subsidies to auto businesses.  I don’t think NADA has asked for anything impossible. We are flexible in bank interest rate as it is often determined by the market. Our demands are the need of the hour if the concerned authorities want to see this sector boom and help traders, sellers, and customers.   As import restrictions have been lifted, how long would it take for the auto sector to return to its usual business cycle? Even if the government and the central bank immediately meet our demands, I think it will still take at least a year for normalcy to return to the automobile market. The economic slowdown and liquidity crisis coupled with the higher inflation rate and bank interest rate have hampered us a lot as the customers are not in a position to buy vehicles.  What was the impact of the eight-month-long import restrictions on the automobile sector? Many traders and dealers have already left this sector after incurring huge financial losses and many are in the process to leave as soon which of course will lead to thousands of people becoming jobless. Automobile importers and dealers are not only facing the impacts. The government itself had lost a large source of revenue generation as the custom tariff on automobiles is around 250 to 300 percent. And I think, due to this reason too, the government had to lift the import ban.  How much revenue did the government lose due to the import restrictions? In the last fiscal year, we spent around Rs 90bn on customs duties and other expenses. So, I think, the government lost at least Rs 40bn in this period.  With the government lifting the import ban, when will authorized auto dealers start importing new vehicles? When will the consumers get the new models? By completing the process, in around two months, new and demanded models of vehicles will be available in the market.  While the government stopped the import of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, it allowed electric vehicle imports during this period. The government data also shows a huge surge in the imports of electric vehicles. What do you think will be the market for EVs in Nepal? Not only in Nepal, but globally, electric vehicles (EVs) are the future of automobiles. That doesn’t mean electricity will replace petroleum products immediately. But the process has already started.  Nepal has a good and growing market for EVs. I see that we have not been able to meet the demands of customers. But this is a global problem due to the lower production rate. I guess that in the next five years, around 50 percent of the import of cars and two-wheelers will be EVs. 

Every year, thousands of Nepalis fly to foreign countries in search of jobs. Around 90 percent of them end up in Persian Gulf countries. Ideally, a foreign job aspirant is only supposed to pay only for medical, insurance, and pre-departure orientation training, which amounts to around Rs 8,000. But overseas job recruitment agencies, commonly referred to as manpower agencies in Nepal, have been charging an average of Rs 100,000 from each person. They are openly going against the ‘free visa, free ticket’ policy introduced by the government in 2015. Anushka Nepal of ApEx talks to Umakanta Acharya, director general, Department of Foreign Employment on the matter.  Why aren’t job recruitment agencies following the ‘free visa, free ticket’ policy?  When the policy was made public, many agencies showed their dissatisfaction. There were concerns that they might go out of the business. They didn’t like the fact that the government did not consult them before announcing the policy. One reason could be that dissatisfaction. Also, there is an unhealthy competition among manpower agencies on who gets more demand for workers. They are even paying the employers to bump up the worker demand numbers. Some of them are doing this in order not to run out of business, while others are doing it out of greed. As a result, none of the agencies are willing to follow the rules.  The department should receive many complaints regarding this matter. So, What is the department doing?  Yes, we do get several complaints in this matter. But in most cases, there is not enough proof to support the workers’ claims. Manpower agencies do charge exorbitant fees from their clients, but they issue payment receipts for just Rs 10,000. So, without the document of proof to produce it in the court, we cannot pursue the case. The best we could do is to claim for the money people have paid to manpower agencies, and fine those companies if we have some kind of incriminating evidence. There is no legal provision to shut down the agencies, so they go on with their work even if the department has fined them.  Has the department worked on investigating these issues? If so, why has there not been any significant change in favor of the migrant workers?  We do launch investigations into the complaints we get from aspirant migrant workers. The goal of our investigation is to gather enough proof so that the matter could be taken to the court of law. But, like I said before, we rarely find substantial proof of wrongdoing to pursue the case legally. Secondly, a person will drop the case once the recruitment company promises to return their money. This takes away the reason for our investigation. So we haven’t been able to pursue a case thoroughly. There are aspects of money laundering, human rights violation, and also the breach of policy that needs to be looked into, but all of them do not fall under the jurisdiction of the department. One way this could work is if all the associated departments at the ministry were to collaborate while investigating complaints. It is said that manpower agencies enjoy political patronage that stops them from being held accountable. Is this true?  Yes, it is true. Many successful agency owners have a direct or indirect involvement with politics. In Nepal, we all have witnessed how political influence can help an individual get out of a situation no matter how bad. The same goes for manpower agencies. Even when the department is willing to take action, political parties and their leaders protect manpower agencies and their owners. This has given them the confidence to violate regulations and take part in unlawful activities, because they know the authorities cannot touch them. It is a dangerous power they hold, which affects migrant workers the most.  A former labor minister himself owned a manpower agency. Did it not show a conflict of interest?  Obviously, it shows a conflict of interest. The government should not have appointed him in the first place. I cannot say for certain that he had a direct influence in the policy regarding migrant workers and job recruitment agencies. But what I can tell you is that there are many ways, not visible to the public, through which he could have misused the power to help his business interests. He was the minister before I joined the department, but I have heard some of my colleagues say that they felt unsafe during his tenure, that they were hesitant to open an investigation into the malpractices and irregularities reported in foreign job recruitment agencies. When people from the department themselves are scared of doing their jobs, you can imagine which side the minister leaned heavily on.

Engineers Vlogs is set to organize ‘Orbit Engineering Expo’ on Dec 9 and 10.The two-day expo will showcase projects in various fields of engineering, information technology and science. The event will have over 80 stalls and the teams interested in connecting with the exhibition can register their participation through the Khalti app. Himanshi Karna of ApEx talks to Ashutosh Karn, founder and chairman of the Engineers Vlogs.  What do the Engineers Vlogs do and how was it formed? I passed my engineering in 2019 but the covid lockdown halted my personal plans. As I had enough time to make efforts for something new, I made up a team to form a startup, instead of waiting to apply for a job. We decided to conduct a quiz competition, poetry competition, engineering photography competition, and talk shows during the lockdown.  We upload notices that concern the engineering students from all the universities in Nepal. We have been looking after student’s issues ever since we started. All of it happened to be successful and we hit 10,000 followers on Facebook during the lockdown itself.  What is the Orbit Engineering Expo and how did the idea come? We started off with the idea of bringing engineering out of the textbook. When we say this we mean that there is a lack of practical knowledge for our field and this expo is aimed at addressing this issue. I had a thought regarding an expo during the lockdown. Usually clubs from different colleges or political parties conduct such events. Yet, my team worked to make it happen on our own initiative, and the engineering colleges across our country have responded positively. The IIT Bombay is also collaborating with us. Who will participate in this expo and what could the visitors expect? Usually, if a team of civil engineers were to organize such an expo, other faculties of engineering students would not be allowed to participate. If it were colleges, then students from colleges affiliated to other universities could not participate in it, thus creating a line among the students from different universities. With this expo, we want all students and interested individuals to come together and share their knowledge and experience about their fields. We didn’t want to organize this expo targeting just the Kathmandu valley. We want students from all over Nepal to participate. We expect visitors to meet and interact with engineers from all over Nepal and get excited about the great diversity of engineering projects in this event. What will be the major attractions in the expo? The major attractions are the Robot Wars and Robot Soccer. We will also be providing a project demonstration competition with Rs 10,000 prize money for the winner. For the visitors using the ride-hailing app, Pathao, we are offering a 30 percent discount coupon. To add more, there will be free SIM cards, conversion of 2G or 3G SIM cards into 4G or E-sim cards for the ones whose mobiles work on E-SIM.  Why did you choose the Advanced College of Engineering as the venue? We approached 10-15 colleges to stage the expo. We needed a bigger area and for a limited budget. Only the Advanced College of Engineering could fulfill our requirements.  Are these kinds of expo common in Nepal and what uniqueness would you provide? Yes, such expos are common in Nepal. But, as I said earlier, the participants in our expo can be from any field and any college or university. They don’t even have to be engineering students. And, we are also not just focusing on academics. The whole event is designed to make a better place for engineers and engineering students. 

Clint Folsom is the mayor of the Town of Superior in Colorado State of the United States. He was elected in November 2014 and re-elected in November 2018. In addition to serving as mayor, Clint is also the managing broker and owner of Folsom & Company Real Estate. He was recently in Nepal when Pratik Ghimire of ApEx caught up with him to talk about his time here.

What was your motive to visit Nepal?

I was especially here to visit Khadbari Municipality of Sankhuwasabha district as the Town of Superior and Khadbari had agreed to a sister-city relationship last year. With this, we will exchange many cultural and developmental activities between these cities. My town also hosted the delegation of Khadbari recently and hence I and my team are here.  

What did you learn from the visit?

We learned so much, from how the people live, what they do for a living and how to host the guests. They welcomed us beautifully with tika and flower garlands. I have never seen such a warm welcoming ritual. In the US, we don’t do that, as it is not part of our culture. I guess we too have to celebrate our visitors a little bit more in America. 

Could we see more of such sister-city collaborations?

Yes, there are possibilities. The other cities in America could enter into such agreements. As long as there are people in each community to form such an alliance, it could easily happen as a sister-city relationship is a relation between people to people, residence to residence, and the government to government. 

What difference do you see between the local governments of Nepal and America?

The most interesting difference was the mayor and the deputy here have their offices, assistants, drivers, and other facilities. It is a full-time job. But in the US, in most small and medium communities, there are no such facilities for the mayors. It is a voluntary job and you have to engage in other professional occupations for a living. When they visited us, one of the places I took them was in our board meeting room where we sit and there are sittings for the public too. The public can listen to our discussion and suggest to us what we should do. But in Nepal, the meeting was held in private. I was really happy to see that the Khadbari Municipality adopted that idea here and, during my visit, they showed it to me at first. It may look like a small thing but there must be the participation of the public in the functioning of local government because we exist for the people. 

Are there any suggestions for Nepali mayors?

I suggest they be transparent and listen to people. The people should feel that they are being heard by their representatives. Sometimes, not every idea could be implemented but you should convince the people.