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Why the Magic Number is 100?
Our border towns, mostly along the Indian border, are where all kinds of shady deals happen. I have never really understood why the Armed Police Force (APF) is on the border along with Nepal Police?
Maybe it's time to create a separate Border Police Force (BPF) and their job will be to man our borders and for any illegal activities then hand it over to Nepal Police if it is mostly criminal cases and or to the Customs Police if it is all about the goods. Okay, maybe we should also create the Customs Police Force (CPF) as well.
The APF was formed to fight against the Maoists back then because our Nepal Police were not well equipped then and still not equipped, because our government then was busy extorting from the police wallahs themselves for lucrative postings and promotions. Let us hope our new Home Minister will do his bit to ensure not only proper ration and dresses but also adequate equipment to counter terrorism, petty criminals and non-lethal ones to control any unruly crowd.
Most Gen X still remember the death of then APF IGP and his wife and bodyguards while on a morning walk in Lalitpur. The Maoists gunned them down, and it was probably the one and only incident when a head of any security agency, any political party or any government agency was murdered by the rebels. 17,000 folks lost their lives and almost all were normal ordinary folks. Hope someday Prachanda and Deuba will apologize because they were in charge then and face the music at ICC as well.
APF, after the so-called peace deal of 2006 became more of a security guard for the VVIPs and then the border force as well. Nepal Police were just sending their folks to hang out at the border while APF wallahs were busy playing wrestling with local folks who were ferrying Indian goods daily from the border.
Now, we have a new regulation in place when it comes to our border areas along the Bihar region and the eastern front, where if you go to India and come back with some of their goods and if the value is more than Rs 100 then better pay the customs duty or face legal consequences. I have no idea who comes with this magic figure. Is it our civil servants or the politicians?
Our citizens are still harassed by the customs folks at our international airport when it comes to the gold stuff and more. I think there has to be a clear limit on how much stuff you can bring if you have been away from the country for work or study for at least a year, rather than going on a weekly run to grab cheap handbags from Bangkok every other week. The funny thing is that the Bangkok byaparis pay less taxes on their goods than the once in two or five year returnees.
The Rs 100 figure really makes me laugh my eyeballs out for no other reason than to figure out who the person is who came up with this magic number. If I were that hakim at the Finance Ministry or the Customs Department, then I would come up with a much better plan to curb smuggling from across the border or to stop local shopkeepers from selling Rs 20 INR Coke for Rs 50 NPR without paying any taxes either to the customs wallahs or to the municipality or the government.
I have seen the soft drinks and potato chips from India being sold along our border towns for the same price of what they sell in Nepal. Here the phuchhe Coke cost Rs 50 NPR and I am buying the same stuff from India for Rs 32 NPR then I am making Rs 18 profit on a single Coke while the Coke here could bring you half that profit. Same goes with the Chips. Rs 20 INR chips are selling for Rs 50 NPR or even 60. Yes, I understand stuff like this must be stopped completely.
But if an ordinary citizen wants to cross the border and buy some sugar, a few kurtas, a pressure cooker and some stuff, then let us be a little flexible if we can. Set a limit for folks living along the border areas. Get them a nice 'I live within 30 km of the border' card which allows them to buy at least Rs 10,000 worth of stuff once a month, while other visits can be charged as per the 'Rs 100' guideline. But still this Rs 100 thing doesn't make any sense at all.
I hope the APF, the Custom wallahs and our Nepal Police and all those responsible for the security and trade in our border areas, have stopped allowing shady byaparis on both sides of the border from smuggling their goods during the night. Hope the Custom wallahs have stopped taking bribes so that our shady byaparis can no longer make a killing by under-invoicing or only paying for half their goods while stacking all of them all the way to Kathmandu.
If this has all stopped, then we should support our government's new Rs 100 policy. If not, then at least have a limit. Maybe, tax on Rs 1,000 or more for daily runners who cross the border six times a day. Rs 10,000 limit for those visiting once a month and living in border areas. Rs 50,000 for those who live and work or study in India.
We have to be flexible on this. We really need the dough to run this country, but it is better to get everyone to pay taxes from your local panipuri seller from Bihar or the skilled flooring guy from UP or even the lady who sells 3 socks for Rs 100 or a bag of strawberries near Ratnapark and the Bhatbhateni wallahs and Chaudharys as well. No more fake VAT bills or public land grabbing by our so-called thula byaparis, please!
We all need to pay taxes if we make an extra income but thinking that taxing every Nepali soul for buying Rs 101 worth of goods when they cross the border not only sounds stupid but still reminds some of us that those in the Customs department have not had any enlightenment even after a new, aggressive and 'can-do' government is in place. Or we need to remind our Finance Minister to visit the ordinary folks along the border areas and see what can be done for them to save some dough by not crossing the border to buy daily essentials.
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