There have been complaints against the vehicle dealers in the country for delaying the delivery. People claimed that the vehicles take more than a year to arrive even after making advance payments up to Nu 300,000. Clarifying this, the Economic Affairs Minister said the pandemic disrupted the manufacturing and shipping of vehicles. The ministry also found the terms and conditions of booking vehicles were favourable towards the dealers particularly concerning delays and cancellations.
“The contract was found to be force majeure. So, we are working and exploring ways and means to improve the terms and conditions for the benefit of the consumers. And the other one is people can directly buy vehicles from the company rather than going through a dealer. In addition, for each brand of vehicle, there is only one authorised dealer in the country. Such monopolistic market conditions deprive consumers of the choice of dealers, thereby losing out in terms of price and the quality of service. So, we are exploring ways to put in place multiple dealers through negotiations with the manufacturers,” said Minister of Economic Affairs, Loknath Sharma.
Sonam Pem