KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 09

The government has provided concession on customs tariff on the import of various goods.

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Economists and traders have criticised the government’s decision to extend import restriction of certain non-essential items, terming the move ‘irrational and politically driven’.

Govt decision to extend import restrictions draws flak

As the country’s trade gap is still huge and the foreign exchange reserves is still not at a comfortable position, the government has decided to give continuity to the ban on import of non-essential items listed under 10 categories until August 30.

Govt extends ban on import of 'non-essential' items

The Ministry of Finance has informed through a notice in the Nepal Gazettee that the rate of the tax on the import of various goods has been changed.

As per the new provision, 90 per cent concession is provided on the customs tariff on import of crude soybean oil, palm oil and sunflower oil. Revenue Secretary Rameshwor Dangal said the industries which were given 50 percent concession on the import of sunflower seeds for extracting sunflower oil before this will instead be given 90 percent concession.

This new provision also applies to the import of soybean seeds for the production of oil and oilcake from it. Before this, the industries importing soybean seeds for this purpose got 50 percent concession on import of soybean seeds and now they will get 90 percent concession.

Similarly, 90 percent concession is provided on customs tariff on the import of mustard, spinach, canola and rapeseed seeds.

A 15 percent customs tariff has been imposed on the import of spring steel wire that industries producing optical fibre cable use as raw material.

Recommending for the concessions under this section should be made on the basis of the production capacity of the industry and the annual quantity of consumption.

The provision of imposition of 15 percent income tax on transactions, except those enjoying tax concessions, carried out within the metropolitan city area and of seven percent within the then municipality area by the cooperatives, has been removed.

It is said that as per the new provision, cooperatives operating within the municipality area will get 5 percent concession, those operating within the sub-metropolitan city area will get 7 percent concession and those run within the metropolis area will be given 10 percent concession on income tax.

Likewise, arrangements have been made for keeping the customs tariff of wire and iron rod only at 5 percent. However, the excise duty on the import of raw materials of sanitary pad has been removed now.