Nepal traders took break of two weeks
Traders in Nepal took two weeks to import onions. Because, recently a bill has passed in the Himalayan country’s Parliament which mentions that imported onions, potatoes and other vegetables and fruits will now be subject to a tax levitation of 13% VAT. Finally, vegetable vendors started bringing onions to Kathmandu’s main vegetable trading center, after paying tax on Monday, with the largest consignments of onions being poured in on Tuesday and Wednesday. In total, 145 Metric Tonnes of onions arrived in Kathmandu’s major vegetable wholesale.
“Onions have started arriving in the Kalimati Fruits and Vegetable Market,” said Arjun Prasad Aryal, Deputy Executive Director of the market’s Development Committee.
“We have started bringing onions from India for three, four days,” said Bharat Upreti, a vegetable vendor at the Kalimati market, Kathmandu.
Tax structure in Nepal
On 29th May, According to the financial bill introduced in the Himalayan country’s Parliament imported onions, potatoes and other vegetables and fruits will now be subjected to a 13% VAT. In Nepal, a 5% advance tax and a 9% Vegetable Import Tax is also there which is levied on every import of vegetable consignment.
In the previous year, Nepal imported 173.8k Tonnes of onions from India. And, generally, 60% of potatoes are grown domestically, and the rest of the potatoes and vegetables are also imported from India.
Traders are against VAT
Before VAT, onions sold in the wholesale market for USD 0.59 per kg and cost USD 0.85 per kg in retail markets. “Before paying 13% VAT, we also need to pay 9% vegetable import tax and 5% advance tax” – said Bharat Upreti. But local traders are strongly against VAT. Apart from this, traders also want the government to allow trading onions under PAN (Personal Account Number).
They are demanding to remove VAT. “Our demand for removing VAT is still there, but we have started importing onions in the interest of the customers” added Upreti, who brought 21 Metric Tonnes of onions from India on Wednesday.
“I brought 25 tonnes of onions on Wednesday after paying VAT”, said Ram Bilash, another trader, adding that “the sellers are stuck on their demand of removing VAT from onions”.
