May 10, 2015: Ncell, the private telco has been blamed by the people in possibly taking advantage of the difficult situation in the country after the mega earthquake on Baishak 12. As the TIA officials have found redcross logo in the ZTE equipment that are meant to be delivered for Ncell, it is not only people who accused Ncell for the possible misuse but also the officials suspect of the incident to evade taxes. Government has given duty exemption to the relief materials brought from abroad for the earthquake victims. With such redcross logo, custom duty will be exempted but since the officials found the equipment to be used for commercial purpose, the news surfaced in the Kantipur paper at first. Ncell already paid import duty of Rs 10.1 millions to clear its dozens of imported equipment boxes. Meanwhile Ncell and ZTE both released separate statements regarding their ignorance for the Redcross sticker in their equipment and asked not to suspect them on their intention to evade taxes. They both said that the imported equipment are meant for the recovery of their Mobile system that are damaged with the mega earthquake and are already approved by the regulator NTA but hinted may be the Chinese delivery people have stamped the Chinese redcross logo for the fast track delivery.
Customs officials have already started investigating the incident as it was raised strongly by the lawmakers in the constituent assembly for Ncell’s intention to evade taxes. Let the officials do their investigation and punish the culprits (if any) to discourage such incident in the future.
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