Govt to scrap DRP from March 1

KATHMANDU,DEC 15: 

Nepal and India has decided to scrap the existing Duty Refund Procedure (DRP) from March 1, according to the Department of Customs.

Both the governments had agreed to implement the Duty Refund Procedure according to the revised Nepal-India Trade Treaty signed in 2009. “It takes more than two months to carry out homework before implementation,” director general at the department Ran Bahadur Shrestha said.

Currently, department is working out to clear all DRP refund from India, he said, adding that the it recently received Rs 2.66 billion in DRP from India. “Of the total, Rs 1.32 billion was refund for current fiscal year.”

Nepal will get rid of the time-consuming process of duty refund which the Indian government charges on imports from India as central excise duty. After termination of the DRP, authorities will start to collect total duty from importers.

MRP from mid-January

Department of Customs is preparing to implement Maximum Retail Price (MRP) from mid-January, according to the department. The Finance Ministry had already asked the Department of Customs to implement MRP at the earliest. But the process is taking more time, according to the department. “The department will publish notice on Thursday to provide information to the public regarding the goods those should be imported with the declaration of Maximum Retail Price (MRP),” the department said, adding that it has, though, listed some 25 goods to declare MRP, it is making mandatory to declare MRP of 12 goods in the first phase.

Source: THT