Introduction

There has been a significant public outcries on the increased rate of taxes (Import Duties) on books by the Government. It is necessary that the public debates on issues as sensitive and important as taxes and that too on books should be accopained with relevent data and evidences. This is an attempt to exmine the rational of government to impose additional taxes and also study the impact of such increased taxes.

Trade data from 2075-76

trade stats 2075-76

Table1 : Trade Stats for FY 2075-76
HS Code Description Unit Quantity Total Revenue Imports
49011000 Printed books,brochures,leaflets&similar p inted matter,in single sheets, whethe PCS 5707697 5929.49 608254.04
49019100 Dictionaries and encyclopaedias, and seria instalments thereof. PCS 28412 28.92 9750.45
49019900 Printed books, brochures, leaflets and sim lar printed matter, nes PCS 4657351 7532.54 471082.95
Total
10393460 13490.95 1089087.44

Table 1 provides trade related stats for the FY 2075-76. According the Annual Trade Statistics prepared by Department of Customs, in FY 2075-76 total of 10393460 books of various kinds were imported into Nepal.

The Imports remained at Nrs. 1,089,087,440 or in words one billion eighty-nine million eighty-seven thousand four hundred forty Rupees. The sixth column of the Table 1, suggest that despite the exempted Import Duty on the books that FY (or heading as provided in the second column of Table 1), Government did generate Total Revenue of 13,490,950 or in words thirteen million four hundred ninety thousand nine hundred fifty Rupees . Apart from Custom Service Charges (Rs. 665 per bill?), it is not exactly clear as to what kind of taxes or levies comprised such revenues.


Custom and tax rates 75-76

Table 2: Import Duty for the FY 75-76
HS Code Description Import duty (SAARC) Import duty (General)
49011000 Printed books,brochures,leaflets&similar p inted matter,in single sheets, whethe Free Free
49019100 Dictionaries and encyclopaedias, and seria instalments thereof. Free Free
49019900 Printed books, brochures, leaflets and sim lar printed matter, nes Free Free


Changes in FY 2076-77

Government of Nepal, changed the import duties on books for the FY 76-77 as follow:

Table 3: Changed Import Duties for the FY 76-77
HS Code Description Import duty (General)
49011000 Printed books,brochures,leaflets&similar p inted matter,in single sheets, whethe 10 %
49019100 Dictionaries and encyclopaedias, and seria instalments thereof. 10 %
49019900 Printed books, brochures, leaflets and sim lar printed matter, nes 10 %

Opportunity Cost of Government on not putting taxes on FY 2075-76

Before making any evidence based analysis of impact of added Import Duties on books for this FY, let us try and understand the fiscal rational (in terms of revenue generated from the ID) of the Government. In order to understand that, lets take the data of FY 75-76 (Table 1) and compute otherwise exmempted 10% ID on the books.

Following (Table 4) provides such compution.


Table 4: Opportunity Cost of expemption of 10% ID on books
HS Code Description Quantity Total Revenue of 75-76 (Rs.000) Imports 10 % Custom duty on Imports (Rs.000) Incresed Revenue (Rs.000) Increased Percentage in Revenue
49011000 Printed books,brochures,leaflets&similar p inted matter,in single sheets, whethe 5707697 5929.49 608254.04 60825.404 54895.914 925.81 %
49019100 Dictionaries and encyclopaedias, and seria instalments thereof. 28412 28.92 9750.45 975.045 946.125 3271.52 %
49019900 Printed books, brochures, leaflets and sim lar printed matter, nes 4657351 7532.54 471082.95 47108.295 39575.755 525.4 %
Total
10393460 13490.95 1089087.44 108908.744 95417.794 707.27 %


The above computation suggests that 10% ID on books would have generated extra revenue of Nrs. 108,908,744 or in words one hundred eight million nine hundred eight thousand seven hundred forty-four Rupees on FY 2075-76. Since, the source of existing Total Revenue on Books ie Nrs. 13,490,950 is not very clear, it must be assumed that such revenue would not change. Thus the Total Revenue generated after 10% ID would be Nrs. 122399694. Thus the increased revenue would be Nrs. 95,417,794.

The Opportunity Cost for government for not leving 10% ID on books is ninety-five million four hundred seventeen thousand seven hundred ninety-four (95,417,794).

So Government Nepal is risking all the good faith of students and book lovers for Nine Corers and fifty-five Lakhs rupees of additional government revenue.




Description of HS Code is as follow

Table 5: Description of HS Code
HS Code Description
49011000 Printed books,brochures,leaflets&similar p inted matter,in single sheets, whethe
49019100 Dictionaries and encyclopaedias, and seria instalments thereof.
49019900 Printed books, brochures, leaflets and sim lar printed matter, nes



Cumulative Data of Import Quantity and Import Revenue for first 7 months of 2074-75 and 2075-76



49011000 Quantity

## `summarise()` regrouping output by 'FY' (override with `.groups` argument)

Import Revenue

## `summarise()` regrouping output by 'FY' (override with `.groups` argument)



Month-wise Comparision of 2075-76 and 2076-77 (Up to Magh of Both FY)

Table

HSCode FY Heading shrawan bhadra asoj kartik mangsir poush magh falgun chaitra baisakh jestha asar
49011000 75/76 Imports 58089.1600 30607.1400 47704.690 42245.510 65357.2800 58978.1400 34356.4500 62372.610 88443.290 75494.9800 20753.1200 23851.6700
49011000 75/76 Quantity 836467.2000 227393.4600 693871.000 347153.900 460149.0000 630053.0000 197500.0000 680597.000 699984.000 575526.2400 163914.5900 195087.7000
49011000 75/76 Revenue 86.8200 6.8400 35.790 204.790 52.5100 404.3800 284.8300 787.350 501.080 643.1500 508.2900 2413.6600
49011000 76/77 Imports 20507.2415 18798.2652 27420.750 16741.187 42978.2309 37374.7526 27244.4262 56822.587 18559.569 12268.5127 49988.5287 39702.7751
49011000 76/77 Quantity 218339.4531 247599.3907 293214.344 73916.750 290301.4375 386740.3750 452448.0000 779047.000 111412.990 128745.0000 332457.0000 328183.0000
49011000 76/77 Revenue 2646.4390 1877.0848 2812.891 1702.126 4351.7023 3827.5359 2895.3605 5851.795 1893.417 1244.2620 5031.7120 4130.2170
49019100 75/76 Imports 660.3600 1643.6200 1647.620 373.650 7.2500 64.7600 241.9300 0.000 4267.700 415.0100 203.3100 225.2400
49019100 75/76 Quantity 3862.0000 2773.0000 2021.000 2266.000 120.0000 739.0000 277.0000 0.000 13431.000 1623.0000 948.0000 352.0000
49019100 75/76 Revenue 0.2000 0.2100 0.250 0.260 0.0000 0.0700 0.0600 0.000 0.330 0.0600 4.9500 22.5300
49019100 76/77 Imports 204.9199 115.8717 631.072 27.910 634.8293 329.3659 3.5783 0.000 0.000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
49019100 76/77 Quantity 583.0000 685.0000 1323.000 79.000 968.0000 504.0000 308.0000 0.000 0.000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
49019100 76/77 Revenue 20.6250 11.7210 64.202 3.332 63.5500 33.0670 0.3590 0.000 0.000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
49019900 75/76 Imports 22386.5500 33317.7700 53504.860 11473.020 45751.0500 53521.9700 31640.3900 25239.620 66327.670 93234.8300 28265.7000 6419.5200
49019900 75/76 Quantity 74384.0000 170895.0000 1088078.000 46439.000 280955.0000 192614.0000 135988.0000 1063840.000 369303.000 952253.8100 187336.0000 95265.0000
49019900 75/76 Revenue 342.3300 281.4300 897.040 205.650 223.8600 310.5100 341.6800 647.430 538.240 1856.9100 1039.0500 848.4100
49019900 76/77 Imports 917.2518 10738.9879 22808.362 13241.774 36173.2787 29622.5357 13532.6790 14462.430 19600.697 56.1245 294.2021 847.1394
49019900 76/77 Quantity 37759.0000 82292.0000 109788.500 84168.375 292731.0000 474538.0000 317241.0000 147216.000 94696.065 20.0000 3746.0000 632.0000
49019900 76/77 Revenue 175.4360 1388.3740 2460.393 1380.372 4278.5808 3467.5631 1685.3940 2387.134 2311.687 9.9290 29.5900 85.1110

At a Glance

## `summarise()` regrouping output by 'HSCode' (override with `.groups` argument)
## `summarise()` regrouping output by 'Heading' (override with `.groups` argument)

Quanitity

## `summarise()` regrouping output by 'FY' (override with `.groups` argument)

Precentage and Amount chages in first 7 months of FY 76-77 against FY 2075-76


% changes in Quantity

% changes in Imports (in Value)

 ## Country-wise monthly comaparision of trade data {.tabset .tabset-pills}

### Quantity
#```{r echo=FALSE}
#books_ag_75_country %>% 
 # filter(Heading == "Quantity") %>% 
  #filter(`HS Code` == "49011000") %>% 
  #select(-1,-3) %>% 
  #kable() %>% 
  #kable_styling(c("bordered", "stripped"))
  

#```