Under-invoicing rampant at Biratnagar customs

BIRATNAGAR, SEP 27 -

The Biratnagar Customs Office has said importers have been found tampering with maximum retail price (MRP) tags on automobile parts and toilet accessories so as to lower their tax liability to the government. Traders are required to pay 30 percent value added tax and customs duty on auto parts.

“Although we have taken action against many such importers, the trend of under invoicing has not changed,” said Binod Bahadur Kunwar, chief of the customs office. “A single commodity has four types of pricing, which confuses us.”

As per the custom act, one who tampers with price tags on imported goods is fined up to 200 percent of the cost of good or the import is confiscated.

Customs officials, however, said the price of the same commodity can be different because of the availability of counterfeit products. This has helped importers to evade tax, they said. “It is very difficult to identify weather an imported good is original or counterfeit,” said Kunwar.

Within the first two months of this fiscal year, automobile parts worth Rs 45.37 million were imported from the Biratnagar customs. This has fetched revenues worth Rs 13.61 million. “If real prices were declared, the collection would have been three folds,” said a customs office source. The customs office said commodities were being under invoiced by up to 75 percent. Last fiscal year, the customs collected fines worth Rs 21.8 million from importers involved in under invoicing. Apart from automobile parts and bathroom accessories, under invoicing is rampant in footwear, garment and electronic goods.

Source: The Kathmandu Post