Kathmandu, May 10

Kathmandu Metropolitan City has revoked double taxation on house rent income.

House owners in Kathmandu paid 12 per cent tax to the local level and 10 per cent to the central government until now. With the new rule coming into effect, house owners will now have to pay only 12 per cent tax to the local level.

Owners of commercial buildings, however, will now have to pay 10 per cent tax to the central government and two per cent to the local level. KMC’s second Municipal Assembly a month ago took a decision to this effect.

KMC is also planning to fix rent rates according to the location of the buildings.

Joint-spokesperson for KMC Namaraj Dhakal said, “Only 20 per cent house owners have been paying tax on house rent income.

As we have scrapped double taxation, we hope to attract at least three forth of the total house owners into the tax net.”

According to him, the metropolitan office collected Rs 210 million in house rent tax in the nine months of the current fiscal. “We have set the goal of collecting minimum of Rs 1 billion in house rent tax in the next fiscal,” Dhakal said.

KMC Spokesperson Gyanendra Karki said the office is also working to bring all house-owners under the tax net.

“We will also fix rent rates according to the location of the buildings and deploy our staffers for monitoring.”