Bike and car namsari (नामसारी) in Nepal: the fee in each province, the documents and the 15-day rule

The application is the form in Schedule 12 of the Vehicles and Transport Management Rules 2054, with a Rs 10 stamp. The form lists the papers that go with it. Bagmati’s transport office at Ekantakuna, Lalitpur, lists them in its citizen charter as well.

The office where the vehicle is registered. The Rules send the application to the office that registered the vehicle (rule 9). These are provincial transport management offices (यातायात व्यवस्था कार्यालय), each under its province’s transport ministry. In the Kathmandu valley, Bagmati’s office at Ekantakuna, Lalitpur, handles small and large vehicles. For a bike, start at the office that issued its bluebook.

No online namsari form that we could find. The Department of Transport Management’s portal, edlvrs.dotm.gov.np, links each province’s system for driving licences only. Ekantakuna’s charter says every file must be entered in the computer system (VRS), and the office does that when you file.

The tax can be paid online in Bagmati. Its finance act accepts tax paid electronically through the ministry’s online system once the payment shows in VRS. Keep the receipt in the vehicle’s name.

Not always in person, since 2083/06/26. On that date the Department announced that its procedure directive had been amended so that buyers of new and used vehicles need not always go to the office. Its notice spells this out for dealers. A buyer can send an attorney with a वारेसनामा, the attorney’s original ID, and the buyer’s photo and original ID. Signing by biometrics through VRS is to follow once the Department gives notice. For a private sale between two people, ask the office before you rely on it.

Rupandehi’s office posts its windows in the order a file moves through them. Ekantakuna says the work takes an hour when every paper is complete. In outline:

1. 1Agree the price and sign a written agreement: both names and citizenship numbers, the registration, engine and chassis numbers, the price, the handover date and the days allowed for the transfer. When money changes hands, the seller signs a receipt (भरपाई).
2. 2The seller clears the vehicle tax to the current fiscal year and renews the bluebook, and gets the tax print. If there is a bank loan, the lender’s release must reach the office first.
3. 3Online, there is no namsari form to fill in. The office enters your details in VRS when you file. In Bagmati you can pay the tax online before you go.
4. 4At the office where the vehicle is registered, fill in the Schedule 12 form with a Rs 10 stamp. Pay the namsari fee, and the signing fee where your province charges one.
5. 5Take out the vehicle’s file. Have the vehicle inspected: the inspector checks the engine and chassis numbers against the record.
6. 6Seller and buyer appear together with their original citizenship certificates. Both sign and give thumbprints before the officer (सनाखत).
7. 7Hand in the complete file: the form, the tax print, the fee receipt and copies of both citizenships. The officer approves the transfer.
8. 8The office records the new owner in its register and stamps the bluebook in the buyer’s name. Check the name and the numbers before you leave.

Each province sets the fee in its finance act (प्रदेश आर्थिक ऐन) for the fiscal year, from 1 Shrawan 2083 to the end of Asar 2084. Bagmati, Koshi and Gandaki list two fees: the namsari fee, and a fee for the signing before the officer (सनाखत). Their acts list both as charged at namsari, so the totals below add them. These are the rates for private (निजी) vehicles.

• Kathmandu is Rs 2,000 for a bike, not Rs 200. The Rs 200 that some pages give is the federal Rules’ figure. Bagmati’s act charges Rs 1,000 for the namsari and Rs 1,000 for the signing.
• “Car” here means a car, jeep, van, pick-up, tempo or power tiller. Every act puts them in one row. Bike means a motorcycle or scooter, and in Bagmati a quad bike too.
• Public vehicles pay more in most provinces. A public bike is Rs 400 in Koshi, Rs 800 in Gandaki and Rs 1,000 in Lumbini. Government, tourist and corporation vehicles pay the public rate.
• The same fee after a death. Bagmati’s act and the federal Rules charge an heir’s namsari at the sale rate.
• Buying for a minor. In Gandaki, buying in a minor’s name with a guardian appointed adds a second fee equal to the namsari fee.
• Back tax comes on top. Any year of vehicle tax the seller has not paid is due before the transfer, and it can cost far more than the fee. See the next section.

The Act will not transfer a vehicle without proof that its tax is paid (section 37). The tax is yearly and set by each province by engine size. If the seller has skipped years, those years and their fines are paid first. Agree in writing who pays them.

• Larger cars. From 2501cc the rates run to Rs 70,000 in Bagmati and Koshi and Rs 65,000 in Gandaki and Lumbini.
• Vehicles over 15 years old. Bagmati and Lumbini add 5% of the tax for each year beyond 14. In Bagmati the extra can never be more than the tax itself.
• When it is due. Lumbini wants the tax within 90 days of the renewal date or by the end of Asar, whichever comes first.
• Relief on old arrears this year. Lumbini halves the fines on unpaid tax for a vehicle renewed by the end of Chait 2083. In Koshi, tax more than three years overdue can be cleared by the end of Jestha 2084. You pay the last three years’ tax, fees and fines, and the fines on the older years are waived.
• The fine rates for late tax are not in the finance acts we read. Ask the office for the figure before you agree a price.

15 days under the federal Act. Section 37(1) of the Vehicles and Transport Management Act 2049 gives the owner who sells or gives away a vehicle fifteen days to apply for namsari. The application goes with the bluebook and proof of tax paid. The duty is the seller’s.

35 days for an heir. Section 37(2) gives the heir 35 days from the owner’s death.

Some provinces have their own acts. Gandaki’s Vehicles and Transport Management Act 2076, as Google shows its official text, allows 35 days after a sale and 90 days for an heir. We could not open the file to read it in full. Bagmati (2075) and Koshi (2076) also have acts of their own, which we could not open. Until you have checked with your office, work to 15 days.

Why 35 days is often quoted. In Bagmati it is how long the signing before the officer stays valid. The provinces put clocks of their own on the signing, with fines when it runs out:

• The Act’s own fine. The Act names no penalty for late namsari in particular. Its general clause allows the authorised officer to fine Rs 200 to Rs 1,000 for breaking the Act or its Rules (section 160(3)).
• Why it matters more than the fine. Until the transfer is recorded, the register still names the seller as the owner.

A bank loan freezes the namsari (रोक्का). Ekantakuna places a freeze on the letter of the body that asks for it, with no fee, in 30 minutes. Bagmati’s finance act calls it a namsari freeze. While it stands, the vehicle cannot be transferred.

Lifting it (फुकुवा). When the loan is repaid, the lender writes to the transport office to release it. Ask the bank for that letter, addressed to the office where the vehicle is registered. Bagmati charges half the namsari fee to freeze or release a namsari: Rs 500 for a bike and Rs 600 for a private car. A court’s order to do either costs nothing. We found no official list of what the bank’s letter must say, so ask the office before you go.

The order matters. The seller clears the loan, the bank’s release reaches the office, and only then does the namsari go ahead. Pay the balance when the release is on record, not before.

After a death (मृतकको नामबाट नामसारी). The heir applies on the form in Schedule 13 of the Rules. The extra papers are:

• the death registration certificate (मृत्यु दर्ता प्रमाणपत्र) from the local registrar;
• a relationship certificate (नाता प्रमाणित) from the District Administration Office showing who the nearest heirs are. Ekantakuna asks that it names them in full, for example the only wife and the number of children;
• the bluebook and proof of tax paid, and the heir’s citizenship certificate;
• the vehicle’s inspection and pollution certificates.

A seller abroad signs through an attorney. Item 5 of the namsari form accepts a वारेसनामा (power of attorney) or a representative’s letter, with certified copies of the citizenship or ID. From abroad that means an अधिकृत वारेसनामा certified at a Nepali embassy or consulate. What each mission asks for is in power of attorney from abroad. Draft the deed with the power of attorney maker (अधिकृत वारेसनामा). Name the vehicle by its registration, engine and chassis numbers, and give the power to sign the namsari and collect the bluebook. Ask the office whether it will accept the deed before the seller posts the original.

An owner who cannot come to the office. In Lumbini the office can send staff to the owner for Rs 5,000 in a Terai district and Rs 8,000 in a hill or mountain district.

Namsari stays with the registering office. The Rules send the application to the office that registered the vehicle (rule 9), even if the buyer lives in another province. Lumbini lets the buyer or seller sign at that office for a namsari done elsewhere: Rs 1,000 for a bike and Rs 1,500 for a car, valid 30 days. Gandaki adds 50% to the signing fee when the signing and the service are at different offices.

Moving the registration to your province. First get transfer consent (सरुवा सहमति) from the old office. Then register the transfer (सरुवा दर्ता) at the new one. Ekantakuna wants the original consent, the last namsari and the bluebook within 35 days. It also wants tax paid to the current year, the owner’s citizenship, three photos and an inspection.

• Tax relief for a vehicle moving in. Lumbini does not charge the difference when its tax is higher than the province the vehicle came from. Koshi halves the 2083/84 tax for vehicles that moved in by transfer consent during 2082/83.
• Renewing without moving. Gandaki and Lumbini let a vehicle registered in another province renew its bluebook with them, at their own rates.

• The name. The owner in the bluebook is the person selling, and the name matches their citizenship certificate. If the owner has died, you are dealing with the heirs, and section 37(2) is their route.
• The numbers. The engine and chassis numbers on the vehicle match the bluebook. The office’s inspector checks them before the transfer.
• The tax. Paid to the current fiscal year, with the bluebook renewed. Ask for the tax print.
• No loan or freeze. A vehicle on finance stays frozen until the lender’s release reaches the office. Ask the office, with the registration number, whether a freeze is recorded.
• No case over who owns it. A vehicle under a court case over its ownership cannot be transferred until the case ends (section 37(5)).
• Not a write-off. A vehicle whose engine and chassis are both damaged beyond use cannot be transferred (rule 11).
• Insurance. Current third-party insurance, which the office asks to see.
• A payment you can prove. In Gandaki, a vehicle bought for more than Rs 10 lakh must be paid for by account-payee cheque. Anywhere, take a signed receipt.