Finance Minister Denies Misinformation on Customs Rates and Document Pages

Kathmandu. Finance Minister Dr. Swarnim Wagle has claimed that the news about changes in customs rates in the finance bill and pages disappearing from the document are misleading and exaggerated. 

Speaking at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday, Finance Minister Wagle stated that there was no policy manipulation in the customs rates and that a matter arising from technical reasons was unnecessarily made controversial. Responding to questions raised by MPs at the meeting, Finance Minister Wagle said that some rates corrected by the governments of CPN-UML and Nepali Congress last year have been clarified this time. 

He said that only a minor change has been made in the customs rate of carriers that transport blood and vaccines. According to him, these are purely humanitarian and technical matters. He claimed that in many other matters, revisions were made only for linguistic clarity. Mentioning that the news in the media has created confusion, he refuted the allegation that rates were manipulated secretly in the Finance Ministry. 

Similarly, regarding the allegation that 16 pages disappeared from the report, he clarified the technical aspects of Microsoft Word. According to him, if the column size is slightly adjusted in a document of more than 450 pages, a significant change in the total number of pages can be observed. He firmly stated that no unauthorized changes were made to the bill after it was presented to the sovereign parliament. He termed this controversy as an attempt to create a 'storm in a teacup' and said that he is ready to face it head-on. 

He urged not to misunderstand the work done keeping in mind national interest and human sensitivity in a wrong way. He pledged that he is always ready to further clarify any matter if there is any doubt.