Kathmandu, November 9:

Finance Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai blamed political parties, taxpayers and bureaucrats for revenue leak in the country. Speaking at a programme organised here by the Department of Revenue Investigation, Dr Bhattarai said, “The time has come for the political parties, bureaucrats and taxpayers to stop their past activities and start afresh. Today’s scenario has changed, and the new direction must start at the political level itself. Unless political representatives stop corruption at their level, revenue leakage will never end.”

Assuring about utilising revenue in development works, he added, “Today, Nepal has a federal

democratic model. Therefore, taxpayers are not forced to pay taxes but should themselves feel its importance to the country and pay taxes. In today’s context, government cannot remain untransparent. Now there will not be any breach of the people’s trust on part of the government.”

“Revenue collection will definitely be utilized in development works, what we need now is trust in the state. Paying tax is our responsibility, we are not trying create panic,” Dr Bhattarai added.

Speaking on the occasion, representatives of different private sectors and cooperatives complained about government’s schemes saying they were not allowed to think and that the decisions were always arbitrary. They also pointed out that the people were still not aware of the tax policy and urged that they should first be made educated about it through awareness campaigns. They also said that they were not afraid of paying tax adding that what they needed was time to do so.

“We have a number of schemes regarding revenue. Those who are in fair businesses are requested not to panic, the government will support them. However, those engaged in nefarious trades will not escape the long arm of the law,” said Revenue Secretary Krishna Hari Baskota. He added that the schemes were not being applied on the basis of single-sided decisions and that the government was ready to have talks in this regard.

Talking about Voluntary Disclosure of Income (VDI), Finance Secretary Khanal said, “The aim of VDI is self-declaration of income and tax payments according to that. But, if one fails to pay tax we will take stern measures.”

According to data provided by the Inland Revenue Department about various schemes, it has targeted 35 per cent increase in the total revenue collection. The revenue collected in 2007-08 was Rs 38 million and the target is Rs 52 million for 2008-09.

The Tax Policy-2008 has targeted encouraging industrialisation in the country, progressive tax system, development of e-filing of tax, improvement of revenue administration and creating investment friendly environment to attract foreign investment.

Kapildev Ghimire, Director General of the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) said, “Our mission

is to create transparency in revenue collection. We are also trying to introduce e-Governance within five years in the department. We also have the facility to provide PAN number through electronic systems. Besides, detailed information about tax can be sent through e-TDS system.”