Monday 25th September 2023
It has been five months since the Vehicle Consignment and Tracking System (VCTS) was started and the Department of Revenue Investigation (DoRI) is already seeing results.
49,000 traders were registered in the VCTS for cargo trucks and containers until October 2019. Furthermore, Department officials have shared that the system has brought in a total of 1.1 million cargo vehicles.
“The department held goods worth Rs 10 million which the traders were delivering not abiding the law,” said a department official on condition of anonymity.
The Department also said that it increased its vigilance to draw more traders into the system after the end of the first quarter.
“We have increased number of check points to track the traders flouting the government rules,” said Rajiv Pokharel, Department.
Pokharel says that the Department has started educating traders on the usage of the tracking system. He adds that they even got contravening traders to provide their details on spot at checkpoints.
The government is also planning to integrate the VCTS with the ASYCUDA World – the global computerized customs management system, which is being used by major customs offices at Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Mechi and Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
The DoRI explains that the collaboration of the two systems will help importers track customs clearance procedures at various trading points and clear documentation related work on the consignment tracking system from one platform.
The Nepal Government launched the VCTS to track the location of a consignment carrying containers since July 2019. Since then, the DoRI has probed 81 tax fraud cases and filed cases against 238 individuals for tax evasion.
It has managed to recover NPR 18.32 billion in fines and the perpetrators have been received up to three years of imprisonment.
