Minister Bhandari says he is positive on addressing problems of transport entrepreneurs

Kathmandu- Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Damodar Bhandari has said that he was positive on resolving the problems facing the transport entrepreneurs.

Receiving a memorandum of demands from the Federation of Transporter-Nepal today, the Minister expressed the commitment for possible support to that end on behalf the Ministry. He urged the Federation representatives for the smooth supply system throughout the country.

Stating complaints have been received that the entrepreneurs associated with the Federation have established a monopoly in the market and were not allowing new entrepreneurs in the transporters’ market, the Minister for Supplies urged the Federation to remove the monopoly and create a favourable environment in the sector.

Federation president Madhav Nepal said that on the occasion they drew Minister Bhandari’s attention, citing the government required of the entrepreneurs to pay VAT even though they had not collected tax under this heading in the fiscal year 2020/21.

According to the Federation president Nepal, they have demanded that the government waive off the five percent VAT that it had asked the transporters to pay as ‘scheme’ in the current fiscal year, reasoning that they have not carried out the transactions according to this. It may be noted here that the government had asked the transporters to pay only five percent of the 13 percent VAT.

Pointing out that the government’s decision to impose VAT in the transportation has directly hit the entire transport entrepreneurs, the Federation has called for annulment of this tax. In the view of the Federation, this tax has caused inflation in the overall trade and business sector and subjected the general consumers to price hikes. The Federation has also demanded construction of Transport Village in big cities of the country.

Nepal said a model Transport Village is under construction in Butwal at an investment of Rs 300 million of the government and the transport entrepreneurs. Likewise, the Federation has called for the classification of transport entrepreneurs, stating that adopting a blanket approach to all the transport entrepreneurs has put the small entrepreneurs in problem.

The memorandum undersigned by Federation general-secretary Pushpa Raj Shrestha calls for resolving the problems of the transport sector and to make provisions allowing for deduction of cost while calculating the taxable income.