Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) held an interaction on customs tax and revenue.
NCC discussed the need to streamline the customs administration and widen the scope of tax with business associations, associated organisations and businesspersons.
Speaking at the interaction programme held at Chamber Bhawan in Jamal, Kathmandu, on Friday, industrialists demanded the government facilitate exports and increase the scope of taxes.
At the programme, NCC President Rajendra Malla stressed that the tax administration should be made agile in the context of declining revenue. He opined that the reference value should be scrapped and the transaction value should be recognised for customs purposes. He said, “The reference value for customs purposes should be scrapped and the transaction value should be recognised according to the valuation method set by the World Trade Organisation.”
Malla also urged the government to make the import and export effective by properly managing the quarantine levy at the international level at the customs point. He suggested that the situation of having to pay demurrage and detention fees due to the delay caused by the customs office should be resolved.
Further, the NCC President said that illegal transactions at the border should be discouraged and brought under the scope of tax revenue. To tackle this, he suggested the government implement the system of taking and giving the bill compulsorily. He opined that instead of increasing the tax rate, the scope of tax should be increased. He reiterated that the government should issue PAN (permanent account number) cards along with citizenship certificates to the general public.
In the interaction programme, industrialists stressed that the export subsidy given by the government should be extended to the target group. They complained that there was a problem in operating industries as the local levels arbitrarily determined the tax on their own.
Businessperson taking part in the interaction said that transactions of contraband goods at border crossings have seriously affected the target of revenue collection. They suggested the modernisation of agriculture to increase production and demanded that in the upcoming budget, there should be a complete exemption from customs and agricultural reform fees on tools, equipment and basic items used in agricultural work.
President Malla said that the demand of NCC is to implement a one-way system to complete all the processes at the customs offices — from the registration of declaration letter to the inspection of goods — in a short time, in a hassle-free manner.
On the occasion, NCC Tax Revenue and Customs Committee Chairman Parshuram Dahal presented a working paper on the problems encountered in tax revenue.
