Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, June 20:

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is working to bring all the hoarding boards of the

city under its tax net using various measures. Head of the Department of Revenue at KMC, Shankar Raj Kandel, said a logo each would be pasted on either of the four corners of every hoarding board in a distinct colour. “We will begin work after a month providing the owners ample time to register their hoarding boards at KMC,” Kandel said, adding that the department

expects to collect Rs 50 million in the next fiscal year ‘if everything goes as planned’. According to Noor Nidhi Neupane, a revenue officer, the department collected Rs 8 million from hoarding boards this year against last year’s Rs 3.5 million. The KMC is also working to charge all the sponsored signboards at and around the shops. The rates for the hoarding boards will also be revised and hoarding boards at prime locations like Ratna Park, Thapathali, Maitighar and New Road will have high prices. The concerned firms will have to apply at KMC and all the hoarding boards will be recorded.

The owners will have to submit technical certificates to the KMC to justify that they are safe to be kept at the proposed location and the owner themselves should be responsible for any consequences. Besides, the owners will have to receive permission from the KMC to transfer to other places or make any changes in the size and also to change the content of the advertisement. “These measures will bring 95 per cent of the hoarding boards under our tax net as against some 40 per cent now due to lack of proper tracking system,” he said, adding all illegally erected hoarding boards would be dismantled. Most of the hoarding boards are not registered, while many owners pay much less than their actual size due to illegal nexus between them and the lower level employees of the KMC.