The Mustang Customs Office has collected Rs 11.45 billion in revenue in just the first three and a half months of the current fiscal year 2083/84, crossing its annual target of Rs 9 billion with more than eight months of the fiscal year still to run. The office, based at the Korala checkpoint on the Nepal-China border in Mustang district, recorded total revenue of Rs 11 billion 45 crore 47 lakh between Shrawan and Kartik 13, a window corresponding to roughly mid-July to late October. Customs officer Amindra Singh said goods worth Rs 26 billion 1 crore 23 lakh were imported through the northern crossing during the same period, as reported by RatoPati.

Revenue collection surpasses annual target within months

The headline figure of the review period is the pace at which the customs office has moved past its yearly assignment. The office had set a revenue target of Rs 9 billion for the full fiscal year 2083/84, but by Kartik 13 it had already collected Rs 11 billion 45 crore 47 lakh. That means the checkpoint exceeded its annual target by Rs 2 billion 45 crore 47 lakh, approximately Rs 2.45 billion, within the first three and a half months of the fiscal calendar.

Measured against the yearly goal, the collection stands more than 27 percent above the Rs 9 billion target, and it was achieved with less than a third of the fiscal year elapsed. Since Nepal's fiscal year runs for twelve months, the remaining eight and a half months effectively represent collection over and above what the office had committed to deliver for the entire year. All of the figures were released by the Mustang Customs Office through customs officer Amindra Singh.

Key figures at a glance

  • Revenue collected (Shrawan to Kartik 13, fiscal year 2083/84): Rs 11 billion 45 crore 47 lakh, or Rs 11.45 billion
  • Annual revenue target for fiscal year 2083/84: Rs 9 billion
  • Excess over the annual target: Rs 2 billion 45 crore 47 lakh, or Rs 2.45 billion
  • Value of goods imported through Korala in the period: Rs 26 billion 1 crore 23 lakh, or Rs 26.01 billion
  • Source of the figures: Mustang Customs Office, cited by customs officer Amindra Singh

Import volume through the northern crossing

Underlying the revenue performance is a substantial flow of goods through Korala. According to the customs office, merchandise worth Rs 26 billion 1 crore 23 lakh was imported through the checkpoint between Shrawan and Kartik 13. Customs revenue is levied on goods as they are imported and cleared at border points, so the value of trade passing through a crossing is closely tied to the amount of revenue a customs office is able to collect.

The import figure covers exactly the same window as the revenue collection, giving a parallel measure of the commercial activity at the crossing during the period. The reported numbers do not include a breakdown of the types of goods imported or of the individual revenue heads that made up the total collection, as those details were not provided in the figures released by the office.

Reading the numbers

For readers more familiar with the international numbering system, the reported figures use the South Asian units of crore and lakh. One crore equals 10 million and one lakh equals 100,000. On that basis, the Rs 11 billion 45 crore 47 lakh collected by the Mustang Customs Office converts to approximately Rs 11.45 billion, the surplus of Rs 2 billion 45 crore 47 lakh works out to about Rs 2.45 billion, and the import value of Rs 26 billion 1 crore 23 lakh comes to roughly Rs 26.01 billion.

The timeline likewise follows Nepal's fiscal calendar. The fiscal year begins in Shrawan, which falls in mid-July, while Kartik is the fourth month of the year, starting in mid-October. The period from Shrawan to Kartik 13 therefore spans about three and a half months and ends in late October, and it serves as the review window for both the revenue collection and the import figures cited by the office.

What the figures signal for the Korala crossing

The scale of the collection underlines the role of the Korala checkpoint as a revenue point on Nepal's northern border with China. The numbers point to the volume of trade now moving through the crossing: in roughly three and a half months, imports valued at more than Rs 26 billion passed through Korala, and the customs office turned that flow into Rs 11.45 billion in revenue, enough to complete its annual target with the bulk of the fiscal year still ahead.

With the Rs 9 billion annual target already surpassed, any further collection during the remaining months of fiscal year 2083/84 will add directly to the Rs 2.45 billion surplus the office has recorded so far. The next updates from the Mustang Customs Office, covering the period after Kartik 13, will show whether the current pace of both imports and revenue holds through the rest of the fiscal year.