KATHMANDU, May 7: Customs clearance of imported goods that had been halted for a week has been resumed after traders agreed to adopt the self-declaration of maximum retail price (MRP) implemented by the government.
The week-long impasse ended after the Department of Customs (DoC) allowed importers to self-declare the MRP of goods and tag labels later at their warehouses before they dispatch their goods to the market. After the government made MRP rule mandatory on imported goods, thousands of cargo vehicles remained stranded at major customs points across the country.
Udaya Singh Bista, information officer at the Birgunj Customs Office (BCO), said the importers started clearing customs on Wednesday. “The importers have agreed to declare the MRP of their goods at the customs points which they can label at their warehouses before they are sent to the business outlets,” said Bista.
Customs clearance halted as importers reject MRP rule
The government had made it compulsory, effective April 28, 2026, for all imported finished goods to carry MRP labels before customs clearance. The Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection (DoCSCP) issued a public notice on April 13, giving importers just 15 days to comply.
Dissatisfied with the rule, traders have halted the clearance of imported goods since last week, when the provision came into effect. As a result, customs offices across the country—including Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Biratnagar, Rasuwagadhi, Nepalgunj, and Kakarbhitta—have stopped clearing goods without MRP labels, leaving more than 1,000 containers stranded at border points.
Traders argue that the rule is impractical, as shipments often contain thousands of individual items, making it difficult to affix MRP labels to each product. They also point out that bulk cargo cannot be safely unpacked at border points for labeling. In addition, importers have raised concerns about increased costs related to repackaging and relabeling at customs, as well as potential demurrage and detention charges caused by delays in clearing containers.
In response to these concerns, the government withdrew the provision and revised the guidelines to allow importers to clear goods through a self-declaration of MRP instead. Traders, however, were reluctant even to the revised government rule.
Bista informed that the traders now agreed to abide by the self-declaration rule. According to him, the BCO collected revenue of Rs 750 million from customs taxes on Wednesday alone.
The government has been attempting to enforce MRP regulations for over a decade. On September 17, 2012, the Ministry of Commerce first published a notice in the Nepal Gazette making price tags mandatory for daily consumer goods.
