July 13: The gold and silver traders have urged the customs department to facilitate people wearing traditional jewelries at the airport. Stating that the customs office at the Tribhuvan International Airport is unnecessarily strict when it comes to entering the country wearing traditional Nepali jewelry, the gold and silver dealers made such a request.

A delegation of the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association led by its president Manik Ratna Shakya made such request to the Director General of the Department of Customs Kamal Prasad Bhattarai on Tuesday.

During the meeting with Director General Bhattarai, President of the federation, Manik Ratna Shakya expressed dissatisfaction over the customs duty levied on gold jewelry weighing more than 50 grams when entering Nepal from abroad wearing traditional Nepali jewelry.

According to the existing arrangement, every person coming to Nepal from abroad can bring up to 50 grams of gold jewelry with exemption on customs duty. The gold dealers protested against the customs duty after it was revealed that people can wear jewelry when they go out of Nepal but if they wear more than 50 grams of jewelry when they come back to Nepal from abroad, they need to pay at the customs duty.

Director General of the Customs Department Bhattarai said that he will take initiative to study the problems of the dealers and address them. However, he explained that such practice was brought after it was found that some people were trying to smuggle gold under the pretext of wearing jewelry.

The federation’s President Shakya, Vice President Pawan Kumar Somani, General Secretary Dharma Sundar Bajracharya and Treasurer Sudip Shrestha were present during the meeting.