NBF to simplify cash incentive procedure

KATHMANDU, OCT 13: 

Nepal Business Forum (NBF) has formed a working committee under the coordination of National Planning Commission to prepare a simplified working procedure for the cash incentive process.

The working committee consists of the governor and secretaries from the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, and Finance Ministry. “We are hopeful that the committee will soon prepare a simplified procedure for the cash incentive process,” said exporters. They also said that though there is a working committee, it has not yet organised a single meeting to discuss on its major task, which is the simplification of the cash incentive procedure.

Various exporter associations have repeatedly urged the government for a simplified cash incentive process. According to them, the government should either fix a cash incentive for particular products, or should allow two per cent cash incentive for non-value added products and four percent cash incentive for value added products. 

Currently, the Department of Industry (DoI) recommends cash incentive of two, three and four per cent depending on the value addition of the products. “We have been receiving applications and the verification process is taking place, but at the moment we have stopped the recommendation process for some time,” said spokesperson at the department Ram Sharan Chimariya.

The government had allocated a budget of around Rs 300 million for the cash incentive programme. DoI has currently stopped the recommendation process as there is no additional budget for further recommendation. 

In last fiscal year, it recommended cash incentives of more than Rs 100 million for around 45 industries that were eligible for the cash incentive facility. 

Meanwhile, DoI has asked for a budget of Rs 400 million for the current fiscal year for the cash incentive facility. 

According to industrialists, the current procedure to receive cash incentive is quite complicated as it is difficult to show the value addition in some products though they are manufactured using domestic raw materials.

Source: THT