September 29: The government is preparing to initiate the process of handing over the printing of excise duty stickers for alcohol and cigarettes to a foreign company. The Inland Revenue Department is making necessary preparations to proceed ahead with the process by handing over the responsibility of printing 9 billion excise duty stickers to an Indian company named Madras Security Printers Pvt. Ltd.

Although Madras Security Printers was awarded various contracts in the past, it has a poor record when it comes to completing the work on time.

Two years ago, the Indian company failed to print 1 million smart license cards under a contract signed with the Department of Transport Management.

The issue of printing excise duty stickers was dragged into court. However, the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in two such cases has opened the door to proceed with the printing of excise duty stickers.

A joint bench of Supreme Court Justices Prakash Kumar Dhungana and Kumar Chudal had recently dismissed the cases filed against the department in relation to the printing process. Now, all the hurdles faced by the department to award the contract to the Indian company have been cleared.

The department had called for tender bids on September 30, 2019 for printing 9 billion excise duty stickers. Among the four  companies that submitted proposals, only two companies were selected.

An Indonesian company Perum Peruri, which was selected for the procurement of sticker, did not come to sign the contract. Perum Peruri offered the lowest bid to print and supply stickers for Rs 1.65 billion.

The second company selected by the department was Madras Security Printers Pvt. Ltd. Since the Indian company is willing to print the stickers, the department is preparing to give the responsibility to it despite its poor record.

 Earlier, the government had been printing more than 40 types of stickers needed for various purpose through global tenders. Apart from income tax, the government receives about Rs 65 billion in revenue annually from alcohol and tobacco products. The Nepali companies filed a case in the court saying that the government did not involve them in the sticker printing process and only allowed it to foreign companies.

The purchase of excise duty stickers was stalled for four years due to the case filed by the private companies of Nepal. Now that the case has been dismissed and the printing process is about to begin. When the printing of excise stickers was stopped due to court case, the government had been printing stickers at the state-owned Janak Educational Material Centre Limited.

Raju Pyakurel, director of the Inland Revenue Department clarified that since Nepal does not meet international standards for printing such stickers, foreign companies have been entrusted with the responsibility. According to him, the department started its homework to proceed with the printing process immediately after the Supreme Court cleared the way.