नेपालगन्ज भन्सारको १० महिने राजस्व : लक्ष्यको ६८ प्रतिशत मात्र, बाँकी दुई महिनामा ठूलो चुनौतीNepalgunj Customs Collects Only 68 Percent of Annual Target in Ten Months, Faces Uphill Task

NEPALGUNJ — With just two months remaining in the current fiscal year, the Nepalgunj Customs Office finds itself in a familiar bind — having collected barely two-thirds of its annual revenue target, it must now chase down the remaining one-third in a compressed timeframe.

According to Janardan Paudel, chief of the Nepalgunj Customs Office, the office was assigned an annual revenue target of Rs 24.54 billion for the fiscal year 2082/83. However, cumulative collections through the end of Baisakh stood at Rs 16.74 billion — amounting to just 68.2 percent of the full-year goal. To meet the target, the office must generate approximately Rs 7.80 billion in revenue during Jestha and Ashadh alone.

A month-by-month breakdown of the current fiscal year paints a consistent picture of shortfall. Collections reached 74 percent of the monthly target in Shrawan, 70 percent in Bhadra, 88 percent in Ashoj, 72 percent in Kartik, 83 percent in Mangsir, 83 percent in Poush, and 88 percent in Magh. The office came closest to its monthly goal in Chaitra, achieving 98.37 percent, before slipping back to 85.38 percent in Baisakh. Not a single month this fiscal year has seen the target fully met.

Placed against the performance of previous years, the trend is one of persistent underachievement. In fiscal year 2081/82, the office managed to collect 74.64 percent of its annual target, while the year before that, in 2080/81, collections fell even further to just 63.35 percent. This year's figures, though slightly better than the two-year trend, still fall well short of what was planned.

The opening of an Integrated Check Post at the Jamunaha border crossing between Nepal and India had raised hopes of a significant boost in trade volumes and, by extension, customs revenue. However, Paudel acknowledged that those expectations have yet to translate into results, and the pattern of missing targets has continued unabated.

Trade analysts point to structural factors — the composition of imports, the persistence of informal cross-border trade, and gaps in border management — as underlying reasons why revenue targets remain difficult to achieve. With the fiscal year drawing to a close, the Nepalgunj Customs Office faces a critical final stretch that will determine how close it comes to its annual goal.