During this first quarter, the customs office said it realized Rs 677.1 million in revenue, a growth of 11 percent over the same period last year. The amount realized is Rs 605.4 million higher than the target set for the period.[break]
Revenue figures at the customs office improved dramatically mainly as a sharp rise in trade during the period mid-September to mid-October helped it mobilize Rs 311.4 million during that month. In the same month last year, the customs office had collected just Rs 140 million in revenue.
Moreover, statistics at the office show that the revenue collection for that month alone had exceeded the monthly target by well over 53 percent. The customs revenue target set for the month was Rs 202.3 million.
The revenue collection target for Tatopani customs set for this year by the government stands at Rs 2.62 billion. However, officials said that target could change when the government unveils the full-fledged budget by mid-November.
Chief of customs at Tatopani Chudamani Devkota, meanwhile, attributed the rise in revenue collection to increased imports, decline of illicit trade and strong supervision maintained by the higher authorities.
Tatopani customs, notorious for corruption, has been landing in controversy now and again due to irregularities by staff. Owing to this, past finance ministers like Dr Ram Sharan Mahat and Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai had tagged it the most ill-reputed customs office.
“Even though we have not been able to completely plug the leakages, we have curbed them sharply,” Devkota stated.
While he attributed the improvement in the situation to reforms introduced in the customs office, other officials said it was mainly constant monitoring and supervision by the central authorities that forced the office to tidy up its operations.
During the first week of October, senior officials from the Ministry of Finance and Department of Revenue Investigation had visited the office and instructed its staff to streamline its operations, work transparently and focus more on revenue collection.
Apart from that, records show that imports via Tatopani, which were on a downward trend over the second half of last fiscal year, have jumped significantly since September. “The bilateral trade is rising encouragingly,” said Devkota, pointing out that currently some 60 container-loads of Chinese goods are entering the country though the customs every day.
Of these containers, at least 15 are brining Chinese apples to meet rising demand in the festival season. Likewise, shoes and winter wear like jackets and woolen products are also entering in substantial quantity.
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