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Kathmandu Saturday January 26, 2002 Magh 13, 2058.
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Govt preparing to merge
customs offices
Post Report
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,
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