KATHMANDU, May 30 -- A new budget provision to revoke concessions and subsidies, while importing electric vehicles(EVs), has irked environmentalists, clean energy enthusiasts, and importers.

Earlier, the electric vehicles were only levied 10 percent customs duty and VAT while importing. The government, in its budget announced Thursday, has increased the customs duty from 30 to 80 percent and excise duty from 5 percent to 80 percent depending upon the engine of these non-polluting vehicles.

"The new measures would increase the prices of the EVs from 30 to 150 percent, according to Umesh Shrestha, the president of the Electric Vehicles Association of Nepal( EVAN).

"This is sterilization of electric vehicles in Nepal," laments Shrestha, w...