Kathmandu, November 16

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Krishna Bahadur Mahara stressed on effective and efficient revenue administration in the country to facilitate taxpayers and expand the tax net to mobilise resources for the development of the country.

Addressing a programme to mark the fifth National Tax Day in the Capital today, Mahara said that the Finance Ministry has been working on ways to control revenue leakages and for effective enforcement of tax laws to raise tax compliance among taxpayers.

This is the fifth series of the National Tax Day being marked every year on Mangsir 1 of the Nepali calendar with the major objective to create awareness among people and honour the best taxpayers. Share of revenue in total gross domestic product reached 21.5 per cent in fiscal year 2015-16.

Till the last fiscal, a total of 840,000 firms had registered for permanent account number (PAN) and 602,000 individuals have obtained PAN. The number of taxpayers under Value Added Tax (VAT) reached 164,000 and 42,000 taxpayers have registered under excise, according to Inland Revenue Department (IRD).

On the occasion of the National Tax Day, Minister Mahara launched a mobile application which contains comprehensive information of taxpayers. During the programme, IRD informed that it will launch a single tax code system in the near future to simplify the tax system.

It also said that it is going to revise the application form for VAT registration, which will seek detailed information of taxpayers.

To mark the day, the highest taxpayers under 15 various categories were also honoured.