By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Nov. 17: As the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) is set to start its week long national tax day on Sunday, about 800,000 taxpayers have been added to its tax net, taking the total number of taxpayers in the country to 2,965,000.
A week-long National Tax Day-2019 is going to be marked across the country from Sunday.
Around 800,000 new tax payers were added in the tax nets during the first four months of the current fiscal year, he said, adding that the total tax payers reached 2,965,000 till the date.
The number of taxpayers under Value Added Tax (VAT) reached 239,758. Under the PAN for all programme of the government, around 794,000 taxpayers have obtained PAN.
This is the eighth series of the National Tax day being marked every year on Mangsir 1 of the Nepali calendar with the objective to create awareness among people and to honour the best taxpayers.
The IRD will mark the day by organising various programmes to expand the tax net and encourage people to pay tax in time, said Binod Bahadur Kunwar, director general of IRD at a press conference Saturday.
The slogan of the 8th tax day is ‘Clean tax administration, development and good governance’.
Finance Minister Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada is scheduled to inaugurate the national tax day amidst a function here on Sunday morning.
He said that the tax awareness programmes will be organised outside the Kathmandu Valley with the active participation of the private sectors’ organisations.
On the inaugural session of tax day, the IRD will honour 15 best taxpayers and 10 best employees of the IRD.
According to him, the target of the IRD was to transform the import based tax system into the sustainable tax system by gradually mobilising internal economic activities.
“Our target is to expand the tax nets through the self-tax discloser participation by effective implementation of the tax acts and provide sound and quality tax services to the taxpayers,” he said.
The IRD is working to implement the 3rd reform plans as per the second five year strategic plans of the IRD, he said.
Revenue up
The average revenue growth rates of the IRD increased by 23 per cent during the first four months of the current fiscal year.
Kunwar said that the growth of revenue collection of the IRD stood at 23 per cent which was satisfactory.
The IRD has collected revenue of Rs. 104 billion by the mid-November of the current fiscal year. However, the revenue collection during the first four month was lower than the target of Rs. 125 billion.
The IRD has targeted to collect revenue of Rs. 506 billion over the current fiscal year. The growth of revenue collection under income tax and Value Added Tax is increasing which supported for achieving the 23 per cent revenue growth, Kunwar said.
The contribution of the IRD to the Gross Domestic Product stood at 22 per cent which was satisfactory, he said.