Govt preparing to merge customs offices

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KATHMANDU, Jan 25: The government is mulling to merge minor customs offices to main customs offices owing to their failure to mobilise revenue.

Madhav Prasad Ghimire, Director General at the Department of Customs (DoC) talking to The Kathmandu Post today, said that the department is carrying out the studies to find out the unimportant customs office that should be merged with major offices.

"The merger programme, however, will take time, as it must be consulted with local residents and Chief District Officer (CDO) of concerned districts," said Ghimire. He said that all the necessary preparations are being done with an aim to accomplish the merger program within the current fiscal year.

There are 143 minor customs offices in the country. Of the total, around 22 customs offices are doing well while the rest have failed to serve their purpose, as their revenue collection is insignificant.

Expansion of roads and migration of the local peoples to the places with higher facility have affected the revenue mobilisation in the customs offices at Mahendranagar, Koilabaas, Rajapur, among others which were regarded as major revenue mobilising customs till some years back.

Recommendations are being made to shift the minor customs that do not mobilise revenue to meet its administrative expenses. However, Ghimire said that all such customs can’t be shifted from their location considering their geographic and historic significance.

"Customs are necessary to curb the illegal trade across the border," he stressed. Except for the Tatopani Customs, rest of the customs at the northern border of the country collects very low customs revenue. However, they are being operated to show the existence of the local administration, said Ghimire.

The revenue collection from the customs offices other than Tatopani customs office during the last fiscal year was nominal while six of them could not collect a single rupee.

According to the statistics of the DoC, the Birgunj Customs office is the largest customs of the country. During the first six months of the current fiscal year, it collected Rs 2.82 billion as the customs revenue. Biratnagar Customs Office and Tribhuvan International Airport Customs office are two other largest revenue mobilising offices. The revenue mobilised from these customs during the first half of the current fiscal year have been Rs 626.1 million and Rs 359.3 million respectively,

DCB shares oversubscribed

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KATHMANDU, Jan 25: Despite the ongoing economic slowdown with eroding investment capability, the ordinary shares of Development Credit Bank (DCB) floated for general public has been oversubscribed in the first day of the opening.

The bank had floated 480,000 units of shares worth Rs 40.8 million with a face value of Rs 100 per share on Wednesday. The overall subscription has been more than 3 fold of the original demand, informed Sudhir Khatri, Chief Executive Officer of the Bank.

The bank has received more than ten thousand applications demanding the bank’s shares worth Rs 160 million till today. "Since the demand is much higher than the floated number of shares, the sale of shares would be closed by coming Wednesday," he said.

The latest scenario has challenged the arguments that the whole economy has already engulfed into recession, destroying the investment capability of the economy, following the low response to the demands of the shares of one of the liquor companies, floated some months back.

The low rate of return in the bank deposits and shrinking investment opportunities are some of the major cause for high demand of shares, opines Khatri.