Kathmandu, April 20, 2006

The Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) has been able to recover revenues worth Rs 125,857,296 which were being evaded by various firms and traders in the form of various taxes, during the first nine months of the current fiscal year. Following investigations by DRI, actions against evaders have been initiated by various authorities like Department of Custom and ministry of finance under the Customs Act. This has resulted in the outstanding recovery of evaded taxes. DRI figures disclose that the revenue leakage has increased significantly during the period. According to the department, it initiated actions against various firms and traders who have evaded revenues in the form of customs duty, value added tax (VAT), excise duty and illegal transactions in foreign currency. During the last fiscal year, the total revenue recovered was Rs 30,617,943. The recovery during the first nine months of this fiscal has outstripped last fiscal year’s recovery by Rs 95,239,353. According to DRI figures, tax evasion on account of customs duty alone stands at Rs 94,726,820 which constitutes over 70 per cent of the total revenue evaded during the period. Last year evasion on account of customs duty was to the tune of Rs 9,486,318. Similarly, the amount of VAT evasion has also incr eased hugely. The total amount of VAT evaded during this period comes to Rs 12,142,679, whereas the figure stood at Rs 6,829,683 during the last fiscal year.

Government collects over Rs 24b revenue

Kathmandu, April 20, 2006

In the current fiscal year for 2004-05, various custom offices of the government have collected over Rs 24 billion in customs duties and other taxes. As per the initial target of the government, the collection in customs duties and taxes is higher by Rs 2.12 billion, informs the customs department. According to the department review, the growth rate in revenue collection during the same period has been 10 per cent. A press statement by the department states that in the nine months of the current fiscal, Rs 10.82 billion has been recovered from customs revenue side, which was only Rs 10.66 billion during the same period last year. The increment, compared to last year, stands at over Rs 160 million. Similarly, in the categories of VAT and excise duty collection, the government has collected over Rs 10.98 billion. During the same period the last year, revenue collection in VAT and excise duties stood at Rs 9 billion which is higher. Besides VAT, customs revenue and excise duties, the government has collected Rs 2.19 billion from other duties such as local development tax, road reform tax and other taxes. This year, this kind of revenue collection recorded an increment of over Rs 30 million, says a customs department press statement issued today.