The judiciary has once again proved that the executive is either inefficient or incompetent. Last Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that no "engine operated vehicles" shall be imported from India for another fortnight till it decides whether the petition raised to do so is right or wrong. The injunction would mean that the can of worms is opened once again and the hullabaloo of the achievement of the Prime Minister's visit to India is all over.
In Nepal, public interest litigations have become a powerful tool to settle scores between various people outside and inside politics and perhaps this is again an interesting enactment of the same-and as always the victim is business in this country.
The half-baked emission standards announced in 2000 threw up a lot of issues relating to the import of vehicles. Even as it remained unclear whether the same standards apply to vehicles manufactured in Nepal, the focus of all attention was the growing number of vehicles manufactured in India. The government seems to have a soft spot for Japanese and Korean vehicles-it understands that economic diplomacy is one way to keep donor money coming in.
The production of a vehicle entails the issuance of Type Approval certificate to certify that the prototype of the vehicle is suitable for production. Various agencies in-country as well as certain regional bodies generally issue this certificate. Thereafter, the manufacturer issues a certification of Conformity of Production (COP). This certificate is generally issued after the volume of production reaches a certain figure. This is part of a manufacturer's self-certification process and there is generally no regional or national body that provides such certification. However, Nepal believes that it has to be done the Nepali way-we do not allow self-certification, and we do not believe in companies with turnovers greater than our own GDP.
The import of Indian vehicles was on hold from December 1999 to July 2001 for the same reason, until the government gave in and allowed self-certification like it does Japanese and Korean auto-makers. This has angered some of our self-proclaimed environmental activists who feel the import of Indian vehicles violates lofty Nepali standards, and they are now seeking a court injunction against it.
The issue here is whether Indian automobile producers are being denied the chance to speak for themselves and vouch for their standards, something allowed to manufacturers in other parts of the world. Perhaps the emission-chasing activists are being biased in singling out only imports from India. Perhaps they are driven by political forces to settle scores that are really beyond the ambit of vehicles or even business.
The issue is of equal treatment for all imports. If all other countries can get away with the fact that they have no equivalent system of certification other than self-certification, why should Indian vehicles not be granted the same? On the contrary, if the system in the Nepal Standard 2000 specifies a different process of certification, it should be applied across the board on all imports. There has to be a level playing field.
We are really good at announcing messed-up policy, especially in the transportation sector-be it the microbus fiasco or banning old vehicles. We have made a mess of the Electric Vehicle industry by allowing unrestricted production and the unregulated use of cooking gas to run vehicles has created the LPG crisis.
We argue and complain about inequalities meted out to us but we still continue to practice partisan policies at the behest of political and other vested interest. The fact that a different cabinet made the policy does not change what it means. This is not the time for judicial intervention or to argue, but to go to the bottom of the issue. If there is a provision in the Nepal Standard 2000 then implement it on all imports and also domestic manufacture, otherwise change the provisions of the standards. We have had enough of half-baked policies followed by callow implementation.
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