Due to the need to stop the collection of such duty from the current year, even now, the amount is collected for route license from the temporary office outside the Bhairahawa customs office.
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
The federal government through the current budget statement has decided to abolish the route license fee collected from vehicles entering the country temporarily from India. In the presented budget, it is mentioned that union, state and local levels cannot collect such fees. However, contrary to the decision of the union, the state government is collecting such a fee from vehicles entering the country temporarily.
Since the collection of such duty has to be stopped from the current year, even now, money has been collected for route license from the temporary office outside the Bhairahawa Customs Office.
"As part of facilitating the means of transportation for temporary arrivals and improving service delivery, I have arranged that no entry fees, route duties or any other fees can be collected from the union, state or local levels when traveling within the country after collecting fees at customs points," the budget presented by the government for the fiscal year 2082/83 states. Earlier, the route license was granted under the customs office. After the federal law came, the customs has stopped the collection and informed the subordinate agencies.
The federal government has decided to cancel the duty after tourism businessmen complained that tourism has been affected by the double duty collection and the traffic has decreased. Contrary to the said decision, the industrialists of Rupandehi are protesting after the state government appointed employees in the same place as before and continued with the collection of duties. Transport staff have been collecting tolls under the supervision of the armed police at the integrated check post at Belhia border crossing.
Businessmen say that the vehicles entering the country through the Belhia pass of Rupandehi are now 'diverted' due to the collection of route permits. Most of the vehicles are entering through Kalidah in Lumbini and Krishnanagar in Kapilvastu, Sutholi and Maheshpur customs in West Navalparasi.
Last week, before Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel, who came to the home district, the industrialist informed that the duty is still being collected for the route license at the checkpoint. After the complaint, Finance Minister Paudel promised to take the necessary action forward. The Lumbini state government is collecting duty for entering Lumbini from foreign registered vehicles (except cargo carriers) by provision in the current year's financial act. But the state government has not made such a recovery at any checkpoint other than Belhia.
The province has said that such a duty is related to Section 11 of the Road Traffic, Transport and Transportation Act 2076. The fee is being collected through the transport office under the province. By classifying the vehicles in the Economic Act, 200 rupees for motorcycles or scooters, 300 rupees for small vehicles, 700 rupees for medium and 1000 rupees for large vehicles have been collected. The customs office opens at 6 am. To collect the route duty, the employees of the transport office reach the integrated check post only at 10 o'clock. As a result, the businessmen are complaining that the tourists who enter the country early are being harassed.
'It seems that the province is independent in some matters and has made its own policies and rules,' Nar Bahadur Aryal, Acting Head of the Transport Management Office in Bhairahawa, said, 'The provincial government is collecting route fees by making arrangements in the financial act of the current year.'
Aryal said that the revenue for renewal of vehicles and license of PTCA is collected in the account of the provincial government. "Customs license is the fee to be paid for entering the country," he said, "We are collecting the fee for using the roads within the province." He claims that the collection will continue even after the federal budget has been repealed by the provincial government in the Economic Act.
President of Siddhartha Industry and Commerce Association Netra Acharya said that this decision was made in the budget because the businessmen suggested that double tax collection should be stopped at the customs point during the suggestion collection program organized in Bhairahawa before the current year's budget was prepared. "We suggested to remove the customs due to the fact that the tourist vehicles coming from Belhia pass were in trouble," he said. He says that it is a crime for the state government to maintain the levy even though it was abolished by the federal budget.
Head of Bhairahawa Customs Office, Ram Prasad Regmi, said that after the federal law, the fee collection under the office has been removed. "We had to follow the federal law," he said.
