‘Grey list’ phone users who do not pay tax, will be given one more month

1 July, Kathmandu. Only 2,358 phones have been registered in Mobile Device Management System (MDMS) by paying tax within the period specified by the government. From this, the government has collected 1 crore 47 lakh revenue.

The budget of the current financial year had provided that until May 15, 2080, phones sent by relatives and friends from abroad or due to other reasons could be legalized by paying a tax of up to 10,000 rupees by the end of June. Even though unregistered phones are being used in the system in large numbers, the users of such phones are not interested in registering.

Out of the approximately 500,000 phones that are yet to be registered by the end of June, only a small number of IMEI numbers have been registered. According to the Telecommunication Authority, 9,282,888 IMEI numbers of phones currently in use in Nepal are not registered.

Generally: A phone has 2 IMEI numbers. Some phones have only one. Based on this, the government has kept about 5 million phone sets in the gray list.

Although the government has given an opportunity for registration, many have ignored it. The registration of phone sets has been stopped after the period given by the government through the Finance Bill ended on Sunday. Customs Department spokesperson Punyavikram Khadka says that a proposal will be taken to the Ministry of Finance to give one more month to register phones.

“It took until June 7 to implement the tax payment system, and many people did not register their phones because they had less time,” he said.

The department said that if the phones in the ‘gray list’ are not registered within one month, the Telecommunication Authority will take steps to stop the phone from working according to its rules.

In the Economic Act 2080, in the special provisions related to the registration of mobile phones, it has been provided that unregistered mobile phones in use in Nepal can be legalized by paying tax until 15 June 2080. In the mobile device management system implemented by the Nepal Telecommunication Authority, users of cellular mobile phones who could not be registered due to various reasons can register by paying tax by mentioning the IMEI number of the mobile phone set by the end of next June.

The revenue set by the Government of Nepal, the Ministry of Finance is Rs 10,000 per phone set for iPhone and phones worth more than one lakh rupees, Rs 3,000 per phone set for other smart phone sets and Rs 200 per phone set for ordinary mobile phone sets other than smart mobile phones. It should be submitted to the account. If the Nepal Telecommunication Authority wants to be registered in the mobile device management system along with the proof of that, the Economic Bill has made arrangements for the registration of such mobile phones. According to that, there is a system that can be used to pay the revenue, but the majority of people are not interested in paying the tax.

After the partial implementation of the MDMS system after 30 August 2079, the government has placed all the phones that entered Nepal without paying customs duty on the gray list of MDMS.

Nepali citizens who have been abroad for more than 6 months after obtaining a labor permit from the government and returned to foreign employment, if they submit proof of this, one of the cellular mobile phones used by such persons will be registered free of charge by the Nepal Telecommunication Authority. Only after the budget of 15th June, the people returning from abroad have registered more than 47 thousand phones in Nepal for free in MDMS.

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