Kathmandu- A hundred of electronic cars have been cleared customs prior to the tax rate adjustment in budget. 

Before the budget announcement, the Rasuwa Customs Office used advance document reviews to clear BYD and other EV brands before the vehicles physically reached the checkpoint.

To avoid potential tax hikes in the new budget, EV traders used document-based pre-clearance for hundreds of vehicles at the Rasuwa office before their physical arrival.

The Rasuwa Customs Office cleared BYD EVs on the Wednesday and Thursday before the May 29 federal budget announcement.

On May 27 and 28, Cimex Inc., the authorized Nepali dealer for BYD,  has submitted customs declarations and paid taxes for 187 vehicles at the Rasuwa Customs Office while they were still en-route. Despite this pre-clearance request, only 20 to 30 BYD electric cars actually crossed the border, leaving the remaining vehicles still en-route from China.

Although the vehicles  cleared customs on paper, they had not arrived at the Nepali customs checkpoint by 5:00 PM on  June 1.  This raised a serious questions about the customs office's role in facilitating potential tax evasion by Cimex.

Following reports of paper-only vehicle clearances at Rasuwa Customs, the Department of Customs immediately deployed a special investigation team to Rasuwagadhi on Sunday afternoon. The team arrived on Sunday and began their formal investigation on Monday morning.

The team is reviewing Rasuwa Customs' declarations, vehicle counts, CCTV footage, and gate passes. They will then return to the Department of Customs to present their findings in an official report.

While the Customs Act generally requires physical presence for vehicle inspections, Section 22 creates an exception for pre-arrival clearance. However, this fast-track facility is restricted to urgent items like perishables, livestock, and medicines. It explicitly excludes non-perishable goods, meaning vehicles cannot be cleared on paper before arrival.

By securing hundreds of declaration forms and paying upfront fees, Cimex Inc. Pvt. Ltd. processed vehicle inspections purely on paper to dodge upcoming budget tax increases. This aligns with past controversial practices by the BYD importer at Rasuwa Customs. Previously, the office raised eyebrows by clearing a 2,300 Chinese yuan SIM card import for Cimex without a single formal inquiry.

The Ministry of Finance, the Customs Department, and anti-corruption watchdogs have been alerted to major irregularities at Rasuwa Customs, where vehicles were cleared on paper ahead of the budget to dodge tax increases. While internal customs sources confirm that declarations were filed for 187 BYD vehicles, records reveal that many of these units have still failed to arrive at the border checkpoint.

'Very few vehicles cleared on paper before the budget have actually been imported,' said an internal source. 'Only a handful of BYD cars are in the parking lot. We haven't done an exact headcount, but the volume physically present falls far short of the declaration forms Cimex processed.'

While Cimex imports several BYD models including the Atto 1, Atto 2, Atto 3, Sealion 7, and Dolphin, a recent surge in Atto 1 and Atto 2 shipments makes it difficult to pinpoint which models received paper-only clearance at Rasuwa.

The distributor has a history of facing allegations regarding tax irregularities and unauthorized SIM card imports. Despite these long-standing claims, investigative agencies have yet to probe the controversial SIM card shipments.