Kathmandu, April 3

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Legislature-Parliament has summoned Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal within April 13 to clarify on the attempts being made by the government to recover capital gains tax (CGT) from the TeliaSonera-Axiata deal of Ncell.

PAC has summoned PM Dahal after it was revealed earlier that the proposal made at the Cabinet meeting to hold TeliaSonera liable to pay all CGT involved in the transaction, even though the Swedish company has already left Nepal, was at the prime minister’s behest. Such revelation was made by Finance Minister Krishna

Bahadur Mahara during the PAC meeting held on March 16.

“We sent a letter to the chief secretary on Sunday seeking Dahal’s presence at the PAC meeting within April 13. As the prime minister had been busy due to China visit, we are hopeful that he will attend the PAC meeting very soon,” Dor Prasad Upadhyay, chairman of the committee, said.

The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) will have to give a two-day prior notice to the PAC about the date when the prime minister would attend the meeting.

Dahal and other Cabinet ministers were widely criticised by lawmakers after it was revealed that the proposal to recover the liable CGT in the TeliaSonera-Axiata deal from TeliaSonera was made by the prime minister. They alleged that it was just an attempt to let Ncell off the hook.

Moreover, lawmakers at the earlier PAC meeting had also criticised the government for taking up the issue of Ncell with the Cabinet when ‘it is solely to be dealt with by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and Large Taxpayers’ Office (LTO)’.

Following government’s reluctance to define and collect liable taxes in the TeliaSonera-Axiata mega deal of Ncell, which amounted to $1.03 billion, PAC had earlier directed Ministry of Finance (MoF) to sort out the CGT issue and collect the applicable taxes from Ncell within three months.

The three-month deadline given by PAC to MoF ends on April 15.

In the meantime, IRD recently sought a written statement from LTO on the progress being made in Ncell’s CGT issue. LTO, on the other hand, does not seem to have made any headway in the matter. Though it is said that the government should get more than Rs 30 billion as CGT from the deal, the actual figure is yet to be calculated.

Meanwhile, OPMCM Spokesperson Damodar Regmi assured that Prime Minister Dahal would attend the PAC meeting within the given deadline.