KATHMANDU, May 31 -- Lawmakers on Sunday criticized the government move to raise the taxes on electric vehicles, arguing that it will hit the aspiration of making the country self-reliant in energy supply and will aggravate the trade deficit further.

The budget for 2020/21 announced on Thursday has provisions to revoke concessions and subsidies, along with revising the customs duty and value added tax (VAT) on imported electric vehicles. "It will facilitate the import of fossil fuel based vehicles and hence contradicts the government norms to promote green development, just to benefit a handful of automobiles importers," said lawmaker Prem Suwal speaking at the budget session of the federal parliament.

Earlier, only a 10 percent customs...