December 30: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has directed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Bishnu Prasad Poudel, not to implement the decision to impose excise duty on mobile phone sets brought by Nepali migrant worker while returning home.    

According to Prime Minister Dahal’s press coordinator Surya Kiran Sharma, the prime minister instructed the finance minister to give continuity to the previous provision regarding the mobile phone sets brought from aboard for personal use.

Nepali migrant workers have criticized the government’s decision to charge a tax up to 18 percent on a mobile phone set brought from abroad.    

Earlier, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) decided to implement the Mobile Device Management System (MDMS) beginning from December 30 to what it said was to discourage the grey market of smartphones.    

As per the provision, anyone found carrying more than one smartphone while returning from abroad will be imposed excise duty up to 18 percent while in case of possessing more than two sets, the third will be seized by the customs officials.    

The NTA had called for registering the imported mobile phone sets brought into the country for personal use in the MDMS system if the set has not been registered yet.

According to the NTA, mobile phone sets that have not been declared at the customs will not be registered from December 30 onwards and the operation of such mobile sets will also be banned. (With inputs from RSS)