International Custom Day

The World Customs Organization (WCO) will celebrate World Customs Day on January 26 this year as it has in other years.

Theme for 2024
The theme for International Customs Day in 2024, “Customs Engaging Traditional and New Partners with Purpose,” encapsulates the dynamic nature of customs operations in the contemporary global landscape.

What is customs duty?
Customs duty is the customs duty charged when goods are imported from one country to another country at the border of two countries. This is an indirect tax. When goods are imported from home to abroad, import duty is charged.

Generally, the tax levied by the government on imports and exports is called customs. Nepal has been described as a yam between two stones since time immemorial. Nepal has many customs offices connected to India and China.

As soon as we wake up in the morning, we use teacups, or various types of foreign utensils, such as bowls, spoons, all imported goods, clothes, and used mobiles, computers are imported through these various customs offices. Globalization was hardly possible without custom.

In this sense, customs are of great importance for the simple and easy supply of goods and services needed in our daily lives. Even every vehicle we board, including every bit of fuel we consume and every pinch of salt in our kitchen, has come through the customs.


Pic : Raju Shrestha (Birgunj)

As Nepal is a landlocked country, customs are very important for us. Goods imported or exported are audited at such customs offices, taxed according to the laws of the country, and imported according to the standards. Thus, the country collects the customs duty as revenue for various activities related to development, security, and other national interests.

These are the sources of most of the government's investment in the country's development measures, from roads to schools, bridges and other physical infrastructure, and other measures of development. Goods coming in large cargo vehicles through customs checkpoints with China or checkpoints with India are our lifeline.

Today, Customs Day is celebrated in Nepal by holding various awareness programs and seminars as well as citizen motivational and informative programs.

Supplying any goods or services by evading customs is a legal crime, and evading customs to supply goods and services is punishable. Every year on Customs Day, the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Nepal sets a specific objective and discusses whether that objective has been achieved or not? And they also discuss further difficulties and practices.

May the Government of Nepal succeed in exchanging goods and services from all over the world, execute meaningful trade agreements with both China and India for import and export. The only international airport, namely Tribhuvan Airport, should be made more scientific and convenient to facilitate easy import and export.

Let the loyalty of the civil servants not be jeopardized. The details and calculations of customs audits in the world, which have been made easy and simple by computer technology, are still being done in Nepal mostly on old and handwritten paper so that technology can make Nepali customs easier to bind. May the interest of Nepali and the victory of Nepal be ensured.

-Suyog Dhakal