Vehicles major contributor to customs revenue

KATHMANDU, AUG 12 - 2013

Imports of automobiles and their parts accounted for 16.54 percent of the government’s revenue during the last fiscal year 2012-13, the department has announced.

The DoC collected a total of Rs 126 billion revenue during the year in customs duty, value added tax (VAT) and excise duty. Out of that figure, Rs 22.11 billion was collected from cars, bikes and chassis, according to the DoC.

In the vehicle import category, car, jeep, van generated the highest amount of revenue totalling Rs 10.2 billion, followed by the bike which accounts Rs 9.8 billion.

Likewise, the government collected revenue of Rs 2.1 billion from the import

of bus and truck chassis. Each year, the import of items such as vehicle and gold contributes huge amount to the government revenue. DoC officials attribute the rise in revenue collection to the growth in import of the automobile products and dollar appreciation.

New vehicles totalling 208,483 units, including 175,381 bikes and 9,595 units of the car, jeep, van were imported into the country in the last fiscal year, according to the Department of Transport Management (DoTM). The registration was up by 22 percent on 170,084 vehicles in the country during the previous fiscal year 2011-12.

Devi Ram Bhandari, spokesperson for the DoTM said that the import and sales had increased after a slowdown for a few years in the local market. “Mainly the business of two-wheelers is growing with the sales picking up,” he added. The automobile products are among the top ten products imported into the country.

Besides the vehicles, high-speed diesel, petrol, LP Gas, MS billet, garment, brown cement and polythene granules feature on the top 10 lists of imported products in terms of revenue collection. The government collected revenue of Rs 9.02 billion from the import of high-speed diesel, Rs 5.94 billion from petrol and Rs 4.13 billion from LP Gas.

According to the annual review report, the country imported agri products and other foodstuffs worth Rs 30.73 billion, up from Rs 19.64 billion in the previous fiscal. Revenue of Rs 1.61 was collected from the import of the foodstuffs. Rice, wheat, maize and potato are the major agri products imported during the last fiscal year.

Source: The Kathmandu Post