Kathmandu, Aug. 4
Traders and
exporters have expressed their reservations over the Customs Bill, 2080 while
demanding amendments in some administrative and fee-related measures proposed
by it.
As a new
development in this row, Nepal Foreign Trade Association (NFTA), submitted a
22-point disagreement to Santosh Chalise, Chairperson of the Finance Committee
of the House of Representatives (HoR) on Sunday morning.
A couple of days
ago, some traders including the officials of the Nepal Chamber of Commerce
(NCC), had voiced their concerns about the provisions proposed by the bill and
demanded change in them. The NFTA and traders stated that the new bill was
formulated without enough discussions and interactions with the private sector
stakeholders.
Private sector
representatives have also updated Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister,
Bishnu Paudel, finance secretary and director general of the Department of
Customs (DoC) about their concerns.
The bill that will
replace the current Customs Act, 2064, is already tabled at the HoR.
The NFTA objected
to the provision that if the price declared by the importers was nominally lower
than the price determined by the customs officer, it would be considered
under-invoicing.
It demanded to
remove the provision that enabled the customs officer to classify the imported
goods under the sub-headings he deemed appropriate and take a deposit for the
amount of the customs duties.
The NFTA has objected
to the provision of 25 per cent customs duty levied on the imported goods in
cases where the name, nature, physical characteristics, properties,
measurements, size and quality and quantity of the goods are declared appropriately
but the country of origin is different from the one declared earlier.
"It is not
fair to make the importers pay a fine of 50 per cent of the fee in the event
that a general detail of the goods is left to be declared during the
declaration. Only 2 per cent fine should be imposed on this," read a
statement issued by the Association on Sunday.
It also expressed
disagreement to the provision of asking 50 per cent additional deposits on the
charges required to pass the goods if the customs officers had to go to a
location out of the customs yard. The fee should be according to the customs
price of the imported goods, said the NFTA.
The traders asked
to include a provision to form a committee that would also have private sector
representative to decide the issue if the importers disagreed on the decision
of the customs officers. According to the provision in the bill, such decision
would be made by the director general of the DoC.
The NFTA suggested
amending the article in the bill that demands the importers should pay 100 per
cent fine to the customs fee if there is an under-invoicing of up to 15 per
cent. "It is against the spirit of trade facilitation," the
Association concluded.
According to it,
if it is found that there is a difference in the classification of the goods
after inspection, it is reasonable to collect the fee to the extent of the
difference, but the provision of 100 per cent penalty is not justified in the
law.
However, the DoC
rejected the claims of the traders that there were not enough interactions and
discussions with them.
"This is not
a new bill but the one that was already submitted to the Parliament four years
ago. There were consultations with the private sector associations and bodies
on the bill," said Punya Bikram Khadka, Director of the DoC.
According to him,
the DoC had conducted adequate discussions about the fees and fines to be
levied on the importers. Likewise, the structure that would include the private
sector representative in the review of the customs activities has been
cancelled.
Likewise, the DoC
also said that since there were many private sector organisations that have
interest in trade and imports, some of them might have been left out in the
discussion but all major private sector bodies had been consulted for the same.
"This is an
effort to make the international trade more transparent and credible by
including the provisions of the World Trade Organisation," said Khadka.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 5 August 2024.
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