KATHMANDU, MAY 19

The Supreme Court today issued an interim order to the Ministry of Finance asking it not to collect value added tax or impose fine on taxpayers for not paying taxes during the period of the ongoing prohibitory orders.

The order was passed by a single bench of Justice Meera Khadka in response to a public interest litigation filed by Advocate Srijana Adhikari against the MoF and others.

The apex court also issued a show cause notice to the defendants.

The court observed that as the taxpayers were also hit by the second wave of COV- ID, taxpayers couldn't be expected to submit their business details and deposit taxes during the lockdown. Citing its own precedents, the apex court said if somebody missed the deadline for doing something due to the lockdown then the affected persons should be given a minimum of 30 days from the day the lockdown was lifted to do the required thing.

The court observed that the notice issued by the Inland Revenue Department appeared to be creating fear in the minds of taxpayers rather than making things easy.

A version of this article appears in the print on May 20, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.