Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Tuesday directed the concerned authorities to allow a Nepali citizen to bring two mobile sets from abroad.

The Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers instructed the Ministry of Finance after the customs official at the Tribhuvan International Airport seized a mobile phone from a passenger arriving in Kathmandu from the United States.

According to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Prime Minister Dahal instructed the authorities to ease the process of bringing two mobile sets.

Earlier on December 30, Prime Minister had directed the Finance Minister not to implement a decision that bars a Nepali citizen from bringing more than one mobile set from abroad after the move drew flak on social media.

Despite the instruction, customs authorities on Monday seized a mobile set brought by a Nepali citizen from the US asking him to pay the customs duty, the move that drew criticisms on social media platforms.

The Finance Ministry had decided to levy an 18 percent customs duty if a returnee is found to have brought more than one handheld device from abroad. Following the decision, Nepali migrant workers abroad launched a ‘no remittance’ campaign on social media, stating they will stop sending remittances to Nepal.

The decision by the Finance Ministry came on the heels of the announcement by the nation’s telecommunications regulator—Nepal Telecommunications Authority on the implementation of the mobile device management system in a full-fledged manner from Friday. The authority had halted the implementation of the system following the direction of the prime minister.