Minister Sharma directs for printing excise duty stickers

Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma, today visited the under-construction Security Printing Press at Panauti-5 in Kavrepalanchowk.

On the occasion, the Minster directed the Press for the printing of excise duty stickers soon. Though physical construction works for the printing centre go on, two high security digital printing machines have been already fixed here.

During the visit, the Minister directed the Press to manage required human resources and begin to print excise duty stickers from the month of Chait (March-April). The Minister also sought the quality maintenance in the remaining construction works, pledging the allocation of additional budget for the project.

On the occasion, Secretary at the Ministry, Baikuntha Aryal, said the Press is prepared to print passports, bank notes, driving license, smart cards, postage stamps, excise duty stickers and SIM card. “Now there is a demand for printing excise duty stickers and we will begin it by March-April.”

It is said that machines that were brought from Israel a year ago have the capacity of printing 600 million stickers annually. According to Press executive director Bikal Poudel, the Department of Inland Revenue has proposed that they print 430 million of excise duty stickers and they are prepared to swing into action.