MRP declaration mandatory for more imported items

KATHMANDU, Jan 15: The government has made it mandatory to declare maximum retail price (MRP) of 11 popular imported products from Sunday in a bid to discourage huge price gap between the retail prices and the end price that consumers pay for them.



The new products on which dealers will now need to compulsorily mention MRP are television, air-conditioner, refrigerator, washing machine, microwave oven, energy drink, marble, granite and tile, cooking range, kitchen chimney, digital camera and video camera. [break]



So far, the Department of Customs (DoC) has enforced MRP on motorcycles and automobiles from last year. Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has also enforced the system on liquors from 2011/12.



"We are introducing MRP to the additional 11goods, which are being overpriced in the market compared to their actual declaration in the customs, and are largely used by consumers," said Laxman Aryal, deputy director general of DoC.



With the addition of new products, share of products requiring MRP in imports is around 20 percent. "This will minimize the chances of manipulating the market prices by traders and also help check revenue leakage," said Aryal.





Existing Financial Act empowers DoC to fix MRP for any product in consultation with traders.



Customs officials said under-invoicing of goods at customs points is the root cause behind the thriving practice of manipulating VAT bill, inflicting loss of billions of rupees of revenue on the government and cheating the customs.



Ongoing investigation into the fake VAT billing scam hinted that the practice of under-valuation of imported goods at customs prepares the ground for such VAT bill manipulation that ultimately inflicted huge revenue loss on the government.



"We are confident that customs revenue and VAT will go up in the coming days with the application of mandatory MRP on the 11 imported items," said Aryal.

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