Kathmandu, October 7

It looks likely that the government will miss its revenue collection target by a large amount as collection in first two months of the current fiscal (till mid-September) stood at Rs 88.17 billion against the target of Rs 97.47 billion.

As the government has missed the revenue collection target for two consecutive months of current fiscal, revenue shortfall has widened to Rs 9.3 billion in the review period. Revenue shortfall amount in first month of this fiscal stood at Rs 5.67 billion.

According to the Revenue Division under the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the government has collected 90.47 per cent of the revenue collection target in the review period and the collected amount is 12.08 per cent of the total annual collection target worth Rs 730.05 billion.

There was a shortfall in revenue collection under every major heading, except for excise and other tax.

The government has missed Value Added Tax (VAT) collection target by Rs 6.59 billion in the review period. Collection under VAT, which is a major contributor among all the tax headings, was below the target since the first month of the fiscal. The government has collected Rs 28.02 billion from VAT against the target of Rs 34.61 billion.

Likewise, collection from customs tariff could not meet the target despite a surge in imports. The government has          collected Rs 18.53 billion from customs tariff, where as the target was set at Rs 20.59 billion. The government slightly missed its target under income tax. It was able to collect Rs 14.33 billion under income tax against the target of Rs 15.51 billion.

Similarly, vehicle tax and registration fees also missed the target. The government collected Rs 1.53 billion and Rs 1.97 billion from registration fees and vehicle tax against the target of Rs 2.03 billion and Rs 2.07 billion,

respectively.

Education service tax and  health service tax also missed the collection target. Collection under health and education service tax stood at Rs 249 million and Rs 148 million against the target of Rs 343 million and Rs 178 million, respectively.

The government also missed its target under non-tax heading as Rs 5.56 billion was collected from non-tax whereas the target was Rs 5.75 billion for the review period.

The government, however, exceeded revenue collection target under excise and other tax headings. The government collected Rs 14.84 billion from excise against the target of Rs 14.30 billion. Similarly, collection under other tax heading stood at Rs 2.99 billion against the target of Rs 2.09 billion.

Bishnu Nepal, chief of the Revenue Division, has said that the government is hopeful about meeting the target despite the slackness in revenue collection in the first couple of months of this fiscal.