Small customs were not operational for years, affecting revenue collection
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Since the small customs offices located on the Nepal-India border could not be operational due to lack of staff, revenue collection from the Indian checkpoints connected to Saptari district has been affected. The Rajviraj Customs Office, which houses the main customs office, is also facing shortage of staff.
78 km of Saptari district is connected to the Indian border. In addition to the Belhi Tilathi main border crossing, there are 7 border crossings in the West including Belhi, Kusha Pato, Govindpur, Kodarkati, Banainia, Hanumannagar and Swarnapatti. In addition to this, due to the open border, there is movement through several other routes.
After the establishment of Rajviraj Customs Office in 2013, small customs were established from Panchayat period to Bahudal period. But most of those small customs offices have not been operational for years . During the conflict, there was no condition to be established. These small customs offices could not be established even after the peace process.
According to Satyanarayan Singh, head of Rajviraj Customs Office, Belhi Tilathi, out of total 7 small customs offices in Saptari, Kusha Pato and Paschim Belhi small customs offices are operational. Only office assistants live in both of those small customs.
Other small customs offices have not been operational for a long time . There is a BOP of the armed police at the small customs office in Govindpur. A customs board hangs in a house on the border. The police have been using the land and building of customs in Hanumannagar, while the armed police live in the small customs building in Rampura Malhaniya dam.
'Due to the lack of staff, there is a problem in the operation of the main customs, from where to bring the small customs offices into operation ,' said Singh, the head of the customs office, 'due to the lack of staff, we have not been able to bring the small customs offices into operation in many places, the operational Pato and Paschim Belhi offices are also in operation. have been crying.'
There are only 6 permanent employees in the Rajviraj Customs Office, which has a total of 22 employees . "There are 8 posts of Naib Subba, there are only two people," said Chief of Customs Singh, "There is a problem in running the main customs, how to operate the small customs?" "Let's leave it as per requirement, revenue collection is completely affected due to the lack of staff," said Customs chief Singh, "The amount of revenue leakage is increasing". He said that along with the field work, the case work has been affected. "Due to the lack of staff, we are unable to increase the patrols, so the revenue is leaking and the goods are reaching the market," he said.
Due to lack of staff, the collection of revenue at the customs office is being affected. Revenue collection has also been affected due to the collapse of the bridge on the Customs-Hanumannagar road a little east of the main gate of the Rajviraj customs office. Although the bridge on the road has been damaged for a long time due to flooding, the attention of government agencies has not been able to pay attention to reconstruction or repair.
'Earlier, motor parts, cosmetic products were loaded on trucks from India and entered Nepal after paying the import tax,' said Chief of Customs Singh, 'now the bridge leading to the customs has been destroyed for a long time due to the non-arrival of large vehicles, and imports have also been affected and revenue collection has decreased. is .'
