Kathmandu, March 23:

Though the private educational institutions have been opposing the five per cent Education Service Tax (EST), the government is determined to collect the tax at any cost. The Inland

Revenue Department (IRD) has been carrying out various activities throughout the country to collect the EST.

Navaraj Bhandari, deputy director general of the IRD, told this daily today that they had been assessing the private educational institutions on the basis of their documents. “We have already initiated action against some of them as per the law,” Bhandari informed. He further added that the assessment began a month ago.

Till the end of Falgun (March 13), the IRD had already collected Rs 880,573 as EST from 41 private educational institutions. The IRD has already made an assessment of Rs 4 to 5 million from some private institutions.

“There is no way the private institutions can evade the EST unless the government scraps it or brings changes to the law. We will collect the tax by adding interests from schools who don’t pay on time,” he added.

According to Bhandari, the private institutions should have to pay EST on a quarterly basis. Though the last date for the submission of the EST for the first quarter was December 10, none of the private educational institutions showed up. The deadline for the second quarter is April 7.

The PABSON had submitted a 20-day ultimatum to the government to scrap the EST on March 3. Janardan Tripahty, under secretary at the Finance Ministry, reiterated that the ministry had not made any changes to the law. He also said the Ministry had already started legal procedures to penalise the tax evaders.

However, PABSON president Bhoj Bahadur Shah said they would wait and watch for a few more days, though their 20-day ultimatum ended today.