March 13: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma argues that the government imposed cash margin on imports to address the challenges seen in the country’s economy.    

Addressing a seminar organised by the Department of Customs on Sunday, Minister Sharma directed the employees at the department to work hard to achieve the target although the revenue collection was affected due to the tightening of imports    

"At present, the country's economy is in a challenging situation. To address the issue, we have imposed margin on some of the imported goods. It will not last forever. Once the challenges are over, the existing situation will ease," said Minister Sharma.    

He expressed his confidence that the seminar would be effective to help resolve the issues relating to the Department of Customs as well as to deal with the new challenges emerged due to the new policy.    

Similarly, the Minister directed the customs officials to seek solutions through the seminar to address the discontentment of the entrepreneurs with the classification in imports.    

According to him, guidelines on vehicle scanning in the customs was in the offing and would be enforced soon. On the occasion, Minister Sharma expressed happiness over the gradual improvement in export business.

“The contribution of export is 10 percent to the total foreign trade,” he said, adding that the country recorded the export business worth Rs 131 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year. “But we are not expected to stop here. Our ultimate goal should be for achieving a self-sufficient economy by increasing our contribution to export by 10 percent each year.”    

Deputy director general of the department Ananda Kafle said that revenue collection during the first seven months of the current fiscal was Rs 308 billion, a 29 percent rise compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year. -- RSS