DASHAIN, the most widely celebrated festival in the country, is set to add to the wœs of the Nepali people this year as market prices are expected to rise to the skies like the kites that are seen during the season. Traders said that a range of products from daily commodities, apparels and automobiles to electronics would be dearer this Dashain. They expect prices to be almost 20 percent higher compared to last year. While the tendency of hiking prices during the festive season is an annual occurrence, this year a stronger US dollar will make things extra painful. The Nepali rupee has been on a constant slide in recent days with Nepal Rastra Bank setting the exchange rate at a record high of Rs 98.6 per US dollar on Tuesday. And going by the trend, it dœs not seem like the greenback will cool down any time soon. The shopping frenzy that marks the Dashain festival when business jumps up to 500 percent is also expected to lead to higher prices due to the surge in demand. Apparels, the second most sought after products during Dashain after daily essentials, are likely to become costlier by 12-18 percent, traders said. “Si• c e we have to make payments to our suppliers in dollars, prices are certain to rise significantly,” said Surendra Tuladhar, proprietor of Peanuts clothing store at New Road. He added that this was the time for traders to open LCs to import stocks for the upcoming festive extravaganza. Most of the apparels sold in the local market come from suppliers in China, Hong Kong and Thailand who have to be paid in US dollars. A significant portion of the clothes also comes from India. Ganesh Pandey, deputy manager - Samsung division at Him Electronics, the sole authorised distributor of Samsung, said that electronic items would witness a price rise of at least 15 percent during Dashain. “There will be a severe impact on the prices of appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and micro ovens, among others,” Pandey said. However, he added that other popular electronic items like LCD and LED televisions and mobile phones would see only a moderate price rise. “In the LCD/LED and mobile phone segments, the technology keeps on changing from time to time. Hence, prices are maintained. This is why there won’t be a great impact on these items,” he said. The electronics market will see price hikes one month prior to the beginning of the festive extravaganza, and it is certain to have an impact on the growth of the sector. Automobiles too will witness a price hike during the upcoming festive season. However, traders said that the impact would not be much as most Nepali customers buy vehicles manufactured in India, which won’t see a great price fluctuation. Most of the vehicles in the price range of Rs 850,000 to Rs 3.5 million in the domestic market are imported from India. Besides cars from auto majors like Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai, vehicles from Honda, Volkswagen, Skoda, Ford and General Motors too will be in a price range suitable to the pockets of Nepali consumers. However, prices of vehicles imported from countries other than India are likely to go up 12-20 percent. “There won’t be a situation of holding the price during Dashain as demand for automobiles surges significantly. Vehicles imported from third countries might be costlier by 1 5-20 percent,” said Sunil Chhetri, a senior official at Go Automobiles, the sole authorised distributor of Ford vehicles in Nepal. He added that prices of Indian vehicles were unlikely to rise as the Indian automobile industry faced a de-growth of around 12 percent in the last fiscal year. Ugendra Shrestha, assistant general manager at Continental Associates, the authorised distributor of Kia vehicles in Nepal, too said that there would be a modest increment in prices which would impact sales of automobiles imported from third countries. All the Kia vehicles sold in the country are imported from Korea.
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