After the seizure of 774 electric vehicles entering through the Korala border, the Ministry of Finance has formed an investigation committee under the leadership of Deputy Secretary Bhupal Raj Shakya for further investigation.

A committee including Nepal Police and Armed Police Force has been instructed to investigate and submit a report on whether the vehicles entered legally or not.

Director General of the Customs Department Shyam Prasad Bhandari informed that the committee has been deployed to the field and further decisions will be taken based on the committee's report. The Armed Police Force team had seized the vehicles entering through the Korola border from various places in Mustang, Parbat and Kaski from Wednesday night to Thursday morning. The vehicles were seized on the road while they were on their way to their destination at night.

The Ministry of Finance has formed a mechanism under the coordination of Director Bhupal Raj Shakya, who is also the head of the Evaluation Section under the Policy and Operations Division of the Customs Department, to further investigate the issue of 'paper fraud' in the customs clearance of imported vehicles and for on-site monitoring. It is said that this mechanism will go to the field and conduct the necessary investigation and evaluation and decide whether to take further investigation, action or hand over the matter to the importing businessperson.

An emergency meeting was called at the Ministry of Finance on Thursday afternoon involving officials from the Armed Forces, Police and Customs Department on vehicle control and related issues. This mechanism was formed after that.

The Customs Department had transferred Tulsi Bhattarai, the head of the Rasuwa Customs Office, to the department only on Wednesday. After questions were raised during the customs clearance, he was transferred to the department and Rajendra Dhungana, the Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, was sent in his place.

Electric vehicles (EVs) were imported before the budget was announced (before 15 Jestha). Of these, 774 vehicles imported from the Nepal-China Korala border were seized by the Armed Police Force (APF) from Wednesday night to Thursday morning, the Armed Police Force Headquarters has said.

The Armed Police Force was instructed by the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday itself to increase surveillance on the imported electric vehicles and conduct necessary investigations, and then units deployed at various locations in Mustang, Parbat and Kaski took control of the vehicles imported from Korala overnight.

Armed Police Spokesperson DIG Bishnu Prasad Bhatta said that 774 such vehicles were seized from various road sections of Kaski, Parbat and Mustang in Gandaki and 2 from Rasuwa based on information about 'document fraud' while importing vehicles. After receiving information that vehicles were imported through 'document fraud', a circular was issued to units across the country, and these vehicles were seized from the units that were issued the circular,' Spokesperson Bhatta told Kantipur, 'We will refer this to the concerned agency for further investigation/research, and the investigation will be conducted from there.'

775 electric vehicles imported through Korala checkpoint seized

The issue of whether the seized vehicles had already reached the customs area in Nechung when they passed customs inspection or were only checked on paper will be revealed through investigation, and currently, work is underway to hand over the vehicles to the customs, according to a source related to the Ministry of Finance.