Minister Mahat asks revenue officials to work proactively

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Apr. 21: Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has asked the employees who are responsible for revenue collection to work with punctuality, honesty and disciplinary manner.

He made this remark during the review meeting with the chief of the Inland Revenue Department on Thursday.

Finance Minister Dr. Mahat said, “Different ministries of Nepal government are responsible for expenses. It is the expectation of the Ministry of Finance that the funds allocated to the respective ministries are spent in an effective manner. As the Ministry of Finance plays an important role in revenue collection, it is responsible for all revenue collection."

Due to various circumstances, this time the revenue collection has been very low as compared to the past, he said

"I am not saying that it is all the fault of the revenue officials. The contraction in the national economy, the ban on the import of certain items, the reduction in capital expenditure and smuggling are the factors behind declined collection," he said.

Dr. Mahat said, "Despite all these problems that seem to have hampered revenue collection, it can be concluded that there is definitely a deficiency in our efforts. I have no other agenda except that we all fulfill our responsibilities with honesty."

There are internal revenue offices to collect revenue in various places of the state, including Kathmandu. He urged all those revenue offices not to leave any effort to fulfill their responsibilities, he said.

"Effective monitoring of the market, development of the actual business billing system, ethics and honesty in employees and the things shown in the report by the Auditor General's Office are to be taken seriously. I fully expect that all the office heads will take these things into consideration and start the targeted revenue collection from today itself," he said.

According to the review report, the ratio of revenue collection from one revenue office is high and the other is low.

"What is the special environment in which the collection appears in very different proportions to one another? Shouldn't the collection rate be in the same range everywhere? Why is there such a big gap?" he asked the department heads.

"About 44 per cent of revenue comes from large taxpayers. Compared to last year, the revenue is less collected even from the big taxpayers. A problem was also seen here," he said.

The Finance Minister said that it was necessary to review where it went wrong.

"Recently, big business houses have not been affected so much, now small businessmen have been affected a lot. Even so, why is the revenue collection in Kathmandu Valley less than the target," he said.