The government has moved to auction off vehicles that have remained piled up at customs offices for more than 90 days. The Department of Customs has asked auto importers to pay duty and remove their vehicles as soon as possible as it intends to auction them off by mid-June.
Automobile dealers have not cleared more than 300 vehicles through customs complaining of a slowdown in sales. Out of the total, around 100 vehicles have lain at the customs yard for more than 90 days
, according to the department. Customs law allows the government to auction off vehicles which have remained unclaimed for more than 90 days.
Last week, the government had issued a week’s notice to importers to take away their vehicles. However, only a few vehicles have been released from customs offices, according to the department.
“The vehicles have been piling up for more than three months affecting revenue collection and creating space problems,” said Tanka Mani Sharma, director general of the department.
He added that if importers cleared their vehicles dumped at Birgunj Customs, the department would earn more than Rs 1 billion in taxes which would come in handy at a time when the government was struggling to meet its revenue target.
Around 250 light four-wheelers are gathering dust at Birgunj Customs, the major entry point for imported autos. Similarly, Rani Customs at Biratnagar and Sunauli Customs at Bhairahawa have been holding on to unclaimed vehicles. Their prices range from IRs 250,000 to IRs 7.5 million per unit.
“Most of the vehicles which have passed the 90-day time limit are from Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai,” said Lawanya Dhakal, chief of Birgunj Customs. He added that despite the notice to clear customs, importers had shown no interest in doing so.
Saurav Jyoti, president of the Nepal Automobile Dealers Association, said that importers had not been able to remove their vehicles from customs offices because of a slowdown in business and lack of resources and space to store vehicles. “The government should provide us bank guarantee facility as dealers are not in an economically sound position to clear the vehicles paying up to 240 percent customs duty.”
The customs offices allows importers to keep their imported vehicles on the customs premises for a week after which they have to pay demurrage. Vehicles remaining after 90 days are auctioned off.
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