The warning has come at a time when customs revenue has declined due to last year's import control measures and alleged leakages. Though the government imposed a ban on the import of automobiles along with many other products in April last year, the vehicles parked at the customs yards belong to the importers who had already opened letters of credit for importing the goods. According to DoC officials, the imported vehicles have arrived at customs yards over the last nine months on different dates.
“We have requested the automobile dealers to clear vehicles as soon as possible by paying applicable duties,” said a senior DoC official. “We have also warned them that they would be fined for not clearing the goods.” As per the Customs Act 2007, if the owner of goods stored in a customs godown operated by the customs office does not get clearance and get delivery of such goods within the prescribed time limit, demurrage shall be charged as prescribed. Demurrage is a charge levied by the shipping line to the importer in cases where they have not taken delivery of the full container and moved it out of the port/terminal area for unpacking within the allowed free days. As per the Customs Rules 2007, the importer has to pay a charge of 20 paisa per day per kg up to thirty days, 40 paisa per day per kg from more than thirty days up to sixty days, and 60 paisa per day per kg charge for more than sixty days. The customs offices have not yet imposed such demurrage charges as the vehicles being parked at the customs yards are yet to be registered with the customs offices for clearance. “As they have been registered with Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board, we can consider their registration with another government agency as registration with us and treat them accordingly,” the customs official said. In early January, the customs department held a meeting with the representatives of the NADA Automobiles Association of Nepal urging them to clear the imported four-wheelers as the customs department has been under pressure to boost customs revenue. “If these vehicles and chassis are cleared, we can generate revenue of around Rs 2.5 billion,” the customs official said. The vehicle importers have however been urging the central bank to remove the provision under which importers have to deposit a 50 percent cash margin to open LCs for importing automobiles after the import ban was lifted. Automobiles are among the largest revenue contributors to the government. Due to the import ban on them which was lifted finally in mid-December last year, customs revenue collection has been badly affected. The government had given the revenue target of Rs 315 billion for the first half of the current fiscal year, but the customs department said it collected only Rs 187 billion, around 60 percent of the target. “During Poush (mid-Dec 2022 to mid-Jan 2023), we could collect only Rs 30 billion in revenue against the target of Rs 58 billion,” the official said. In the last fiscal 2021-22, the government collected revenue of Rs 66.30 billion from four and two-wheelers in the last fiscal year, according to DoC. "The customs revenue is expected to increase in the coming days as the government has lifted the import ban," the DoC official said.
