KATHMANDU, Jan 14: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has directed officials at the security printing office to complete necessary preparations to start printing excise-duty stickers without any further delay.
While inspecting the security printing press being connected to the IT Park at Panauti in Kavre on Thursday, Minister Sharma directed the security printing center to provide the required number of stickers to the finance ministry immediately.
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"We need about three billion pieces of stickers. How many such machines are needed to print those three billion stickers? I urge you to install the required number of machines to print the stickers that meet specified criteria,” Minister Sharma directed the officials concerned.
Minister Sharma also directed the ministry to make arrangements to print the required number of stickers within a period of one year.
Stating that he saw only profit in the security printing press, Minister Sharma said that the government would not hesitate to invest in it. "It is a big business, so the investment made for this yields profit for the country," he said. “I don't think the government should be reluctant to invest in a profit making sector like this.”
Currently, sticker printing is being done by Janak Education Material Centre. According to Shobha Kant Poudel, Director General of the Inland Revenue Department, Janak Education Material Centre has been printing stickers for around Rs 220 million for the last two years. Earlier, stickers were being procured through 'Global Tender'.
