Kathmandu, Nov. 24
A security printer has accused
that the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) had deliberated barred Nepali
companies to participate in the tender to print the excise duty stickers.
“This tender is against
the spirit of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 which has a provision to create
positive discrimination to favour Nepali entrepreneurs to include them in the
procurement process,” said Manohar Raj Ghimire, Director of Mirage Printing
Solution, a security-printing company based in Kathmandu.
He complained that
Nepali companies were not given an opportunity to prove their expertise or
competence in printing excise duty stickers nor their incompetency was proved
as such.
In a tender notice
published on October 14 this year, the IRD had demanded 10 years’ experience –
in security printing, supply and delivery of security paper based excise stamps
or bank notes or machine readable passports or postal stamps or national
identity card or smart driving license – from the interested companies to be
eligible for the bidding.
Likewise, the applying
companies should also have printed and supplied security paper based excise
stamps for at least two countries and 5 billion excise stamps during the last
10 years. The IRD also asked to produce evidence that the bidder should have
supplied the security printed items worth annual average of US$ 10 million (Rs.
1.18 billion) for the last three years.
These qualifications
barred Nepali security printers as they neither have a decade long history nor
the volume of business as mentioned. There are four security printing companies
in Nepal – Mirage, Sama, Aroll and Sprint.
“We have suffered and
there is no one to hear our grievances. My company has ISO 14298:2013 one of
the documents the government asked while assessing the strength of Nepali
companies following the direction from the parliamentary committee and court,”
said Ghimire.
The ISO 14298:2013
specifies a minimum set of security printing management system requirements for
security printers.
Ghimire said that
Nepali printers can begin with small project or a few items and breaking the
tender into multiple units such as cigarettes, liquor or the like. He has
invested about Rs. 450 million in the printing plant has produced a
high-quality recharge cards for the Nepal Telecom and Ncell. Nepali printers
are also printing bank cheques as well.
The domestic companies
say that they could print the items at lower cost, create a system to ensure
the quality of the product. It would make the country self-reliant in certain
areas of security printing.
Meanwhile, the tax
authority has run short of the excise duty stickers as Perum Peruri, a
Indonesian company that won the bid never showed up for the contact. As a
crisis management method, the IRD has authorized the Janak Education Materials
Centre Limited for the printing of about 100 million pieces of stickers.
Earlier, the Commission
for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had requested the Ministry of
Finance to create infrastructure and enhance the capacity of Nepali printers
that have the ISO certification on International Standard for Managmetn of
Security Printing Process in terms of competition, credibility, quality,
transparency and cost effectiveness.
Likewise, the Public
Accounts Committee of the Federal Parliament had asked the MoF to create the
procedures to allow Nepali companies to participate in the security printing
and maintain positive discrimination in this regard.
Similarly, the Supreme
Court had also issued a verdict to create an environment where Nepali
entrepreneurs could exhibit their qualification and capacity, and promote and
protect domestic enterprise and investment.
However, the tax
authority said that it did not deliberately barred Nepali companies from
participating in the bidding.
“The IRD doesn’t want
to take a risk since excise duty stickers are sensitive products. There were
cases of fraud in the past as well. If the items were not supplied in time, the
industries have to halt their production,” said Arjun Dhakal, Spokesperson of
the IRD.
He also said that the
IRD would move ahead with paying attention to the concerns of the court and
house committee in the days to come.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 25 November 2020.
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