Nepal Chamber of Commerce on Friday started issuing the certificate of origin through an online system as part of its objective to go paperless. The government has also asked private sector bodies to mandatorily enforce digital system for transparent and hassle free service from the new fiscal year beginning July 17.

The certificate of origin is an international trade document that certifies that goods in a particular export shipment are wholly obtained, produced, manufactured or processed in a particular country. They also serve as a declaration by the exporter.

The chamber said it is planning to integrate the digital payment system with e-payment service providers from next week.

“As Nepal is moving towards a digitised economy, the chamber has introduced the system for hassle free documentation for exporting goods to third countries,” said Rajesh Kaji Shrestha, president of Nepal Chamber of Commerce. The chamber will issue the digital signature.

The applicant’s information can also be checked from related offices such as the Department of Industry, Department of Customs, Company Register Office, Nepal Rastra Bank, Trade and Export Promotion Centre Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Confederation of Nepalese Industries.

Currently, the certificate of origin is issued from the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Confederation of Nepalese Industries and Nepal Chamber of Commerce.

With the online system, exporters can send the documents to any of the three organisations via email. Before the enforcement of the online system, traders had to send documents through courier services, which was slow and costly.

“After entering their username and password, one can easily use the system,” said Shrestha.

The system will allow traders to find conversion rate of currencies, make payment and generate certificate of origin from the comfort of their home or office,” said Biplav Man Singh, managing director of Mandala System, developer of the online system. “It will eliminate the hassles of managing paper documents,” he added.

Singh said that even if the system goes down, the data will not be lost due to its recovery system. The online system has already been introduced by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Confederation of Nepalese Industries. 

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