Lawmakers stress on focusing on exports against imports in new bill

KATHMANDU: Lawmakers have stressed the need of drafting an Act in a way that it could promote the exports of goods and services against imports.

Airing their views on the Exports (Regulation) Bill-2081 BS in a meeting of the Industry and Commerce, and Labor and Consumers’ Committee under the House of Representatives (HoR) today, they stressed the need of focusing on domestic production and exports.

The meeting was held with representatives from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies and the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.

Lawmakers Krishna Kumar Shrestha, Hemraj Rai, Rama Koirala Poudyal, and Kantika Sejuwal, Mahendra Bahadur Shahi underlined the need of proportionality in exports and imports to control revenue leakage.

Shahi said so far our acts are centered on imports and this approach should be changed while Sejuwal stressed the need of simplification of the law formulation procedures.

They called for becoming aware of possibility of the contravention of the Bill provisions with the Customs Act.

During the meeting, Secretary (Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies) Govinda Bahadur Karkee said the fresh bill was designed to make amendments to the act and integrate the relevant acts as per the need of time.

As he said, the Bill aims to further systematise the exports and imports with acknowledging of new innovations in the foreign trade, by making the imports and exports more transparent with effectiveness in the regulation system.

The Bill includes provisions for obtaining a signal number from the relevant department prior to exports or imports, the establishment of an Export Promotion Fund, as well as the creation of a contact office and a Facilitation and Transparency Unit for international trade.