Kathmandu. The government is preparing to provide concessional loans of up to Rs 60 lakh to government employees for the purchase of vehicles and its interest subsidy. The government is preparing the ‘Vehicle Management Directive for Government Employees, 2083’ and the Chief Secretary, Secretary and 12th level employees will be able to get a loan of up to Rs 60 lakh for the purchase of four-wheeled vehicles.

According to the directive, the employees of the joint secretary or 11th level will get a loan facility of Rs 50 lakh, the under-secretary or ninth-tenth level employees will get Rs 4 million, the section officer or the sixth-eighth level employees will get a loan facility of Rs 4 lakh and the non-gazetted and assistant level employees will get a loan facility of Rs 2 lakh. The government will bear the interest of the loan and the concerned employees will have to pay the principal in installments.

The employees will also be provided with the fuel and maintenance expenses of the vehicle according to the post. The Chief Secretary, Secretary and 12th level employees will get Rs 1.40 lakh for fuel and Rs 1 lakh for maintenance annually.

The government is preparing to provide Rs 120,000 for fuel and Rs 75,000 for maintenance and Rs 100,000 for under-secretary or ninth-tenth level.

Similarly, section officers or employees of the sixth and eighth levels will get Rs 40,000 for fuel and Rs 15,000 for maintenance annually. For non-gazetted and assistant level employees, Rs 25,000 will be fixed for fuel and Rs 10,000 for maintenance. These amounts are annually.

The Chief Secretary, Secretary and Joint Secretary or similar employees will be able to keep the driver or drive the vehicle themselves. Arrangements are being made for those who drive themselves to get an amount equal to the initial salary of the driver.

The government has adopted a policy to encourage employees to buy personal vehicles to reduce the dual use of government vehicles and operating expenses. Arrangements will be made for the employees who do not participate in the scheme to use the vehicles available in the office in a shared manner. The proposed guidelines state that government vehicles will be provided to the posts of Chief District Officer, Chief Administrative Officer and those designated by the government as special postings.

The directive also prioritizes electric, domestically manufactured and assembled vehicles, collaborating with Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to set up charging stations in government offices and keeping vehicle details and loan payment records in a digital system.

This directive is being tried to be applied to the permanent employees of the specified federal bodies, including the federal civil service, health and parliament services. The government is preparing to recover the amount by withholding the facilities and recovering the amount as per the prevailing law.