Tea, Coffee and Food Processor Records in Nepal

Tea, coffee and food processors in Nepal deal with the IRD for tax, local governments for registration, food quality bodies for safety and labelling, and often a tea or coffee development board for sector matters. The rules change, so this article does not give figures, thresholds or legal advice. It describes the records a processor should keep so that you can answer any office from your own books.

Who may ask and what they usually want

• Tax office: sales invoices, purchase bills, VAT where registered and annual accounts.
• Food quality and safety authorities: product details, batch and date records, premises hygiene records and licences you hold.
• Local government: business registration, renewal and premises permission.
• Sector boards and associations: production volume, source information and sometimes grower lists.
• Buyers and banks: sales history, stock and customer ledgers.

Each of these bodies has its own forms and deadlines. Write down the name of the office, the document you hold, the renewal date and the person who handles it. If you are unsure what applies to your product, ask the office in writing and keep the reply.

Core records for every processor

1. Intake register: date in BS, supplier, product, weight, rate and payment.
2. Batch record: sources, stage weights, grades and operators.
3. Packing record: batch number, pack size, count and pack date.
4. Sales register: numbered invoices and challans with batch references.
5. Purchase register: packaging, fuel, fertiliser or other inputs with supplier bills.
6. Stock register: raw, in-process and finished stock, counted periodically.
7. Licence file: copies and renewal dates of every document you hold.

VAT and invoices

Where you are registered, sales invoices carry 13% VAT and the invoice format must follow IRD requirements. Some basic agricultural products are treated differently under the law, and the rules for processed goods can differ again. Because this is exactly the kind of thing that changes, ask your accountant or the IRD how your specific products are treated and set the tax code per product in the system accordingly. WebsNP can configure the product tax settings you give us; we do not decide your tax status.

Paying growers fairly and on record

Many suppliers are smallholders who sell small quantities often. Pay on a regular day, give each grower a slip or statement and record advances with dates. A grower who can see the weight, the rate and the deduction is much less likely to dispute it. For cooperatives, keep member contributions and bonuses separate so the annual meeting has clear numbers.

Labelling and dates

Labels for packaged food must show certain information, and requirements differ by product. Confirm the current list with the food quality authority before you print. The software can store the fields you decide on, such as batch, pack date and best-before date, and print them on records and label layouts, but it does not know the legal list for you.

Making records audit-ready

An inspector or auditor wants consistency more than elegance. Use one numbering scheme, one date style with BS and AD shown clearly, and no overwritten entries. Corrections should be new entries that refer to the old one. A system with an activity log shows who changed what, which builds confidence on both sides.

Question	Where the answer lives
Where did this lot come from?	Batch record and intake register
Who received this batch?	Sales register with batch reference
Which licences are due?	Licence file with renewal dates
How much do buyers owe?	Buyer ledger and ageing list

Keep records for as long as an office may ask

Different offices expect records to be kept for different periods, and the periods are set by law or by the office itself. Do not guess. Ask your accountant how long tax records must be kept and ask the food quality authority about batch and hygiene records. Then decide how you will store them, whether in cabinets, scanned files or a system, and who may open them. A good rule is to keep more than you think is needed until you are told otherwise.

Common gaps seen in small plants

• Handwritten intake slips that never reach the accounts.
• Grower payments made in cash without a signed statement.
• Batch numbers on cartons but not on invoices.
• Licence copies kept only at the head office, not at the plant.
• Stock counts done at year end only, so errors accumulate for twelve months.

Each of these is cheap to fix with a routine, and each becomes expensive when an inspector, a buyer or an auditor discovers it first.

Your next step

List every office you deal with and ask each what it expects you to keep. Then compare that list with your current registers. If the answers sit in many notebooks, look at the WebsNP tea, coffee and food processing software or read about accounting software for the tax side, and message us on WhatsApp for a demo.

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