January 17: The major customs point of Nepal, Birgunj Customs Office has collected Rs 55.17 billion in revenue in the first six months of the current fiscal year 2016/17.

"The collected revenue is five per cent more than the target," said Sewantak Pokharel, Chief Customs Officer of Birgunj custom point. Department of Customs had given Rs 52.11 billion as revenue target to the customs office.

During the review period of the last FY, the customs point collected Rs 14.74 billion in revenue. The collected revenue was just 44 per cent of the given target of that period. During the period, the customs collection was negatively affected by the Tarai unrest and border blockade. A total of Rs 33.59 billion revenue target was given to the office during the period, however, the disruption of import and export due to negative circumstances hindered the collection of revenue during the review period of last FY.

As per the data of Birgunj Customs Office, it collected Rs 8.89 billion revenue in the month of Paush (mid-December to mid-January) against its target of Rs 8.66 billion for the month. Amongst the collected revenue, the office collected Rs 3.34 billion in customs duty, Rs 3.25 billion in VAT and Rs 1.96 billion in excise duty.

According to Pokharel, vehicles and petroleum products have major contribution in the revenue collected from Birgunj Customs Office.  

In the first six months of the current FY, the customs point collected Rs 20.58 billion as customs duty, Rs 19.75 billion in VAT and Rs 11.54 billion in excise duty. The customs point is given a target of Rs 107 billion in revenue for the current FY ending in May. Pokharel claims that the annual target of the revenue will be easily achieved with the same pace of revenue collection.

District wise, Parsa collects the largest amount of revenue due to the customs point in Birgunj. A businessman from Birgunj says although some industries shifted to other places, but as raw materials and consumer goods for Kathmandu come through this point, it has the largest contribution in revenue.   Lalitpur district has second position in terms of revenue contribution, Rupandehi third and Kathmandu fourth.

 According to statistics of the Comptroller General’s Office, the least contribution in revenue is from Dadeldhura, which stands at 0.1 percent.