Nepal follows the internationally agreed valuation order when fixing the base of duty. The first and preferred method is the transaction value, the price actually paid for the goods sold for export to Nepal, adjusted where necessary for elements such as freight, insurance and the royalty payments that accompany the purchase. Where transaction value cannot be used, because the sale is related or the price is conditioned, the officer falls back to the next method on the ladder rather than inventing a figure. Comparable import value, deductive value on the goods as resold, computed value from the producer's costs and a fallback method follow in order, each anchored in evidence rather than assumption. For the importer the lesson is documentation of the first method. A genuine sale creates the strongest base, and the documents that support it, the contract or pro forma, the correspondence and the payment trail, make the transaction value hard to displace. Declaring a realistic price backed by the complete file is the cheapest way through, because every fallback method works from evidence an honest importer already possesses.