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Kathmandu Thursday December 27, 2001 Paush 12, 2058.
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IRD takes action against nursing homes
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Dec 26 - The
Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has begun taking sweeping action against tax evaders,
collecting millions of rupees from twelve different nursing homes in the valley in the
first phase of the programme initiated recently.
The action is targeted
against those who do not submit their income statement or reduce liabilities acruing out
of Value Added Tax (VAT) by issuing fake bills or by under-valuing the goods.
The twelve nursing
homes against which the IRD took action are B&B hospital, Ishan Nursing Home,
Kathmandu Hospital, Om Nursing Home, Medicare Nursing Home, Patan Dental Clinic, Blue
Cross, Hargansh Nursing Home, Dance Care Nursing Home, Sarbanga Nursing Home, Norvic
Health Care Centre and Himal Nursing Home.
Officials at the IRD
informed The Kathmandu Post that most investigations targeting the nursing homes have
already been completed and revenue ranging from rupees two hundred thousand to Rs 1.4
million from each of the nursing homes were collected.
"Some
investigations are yet to conclude, and hence tax assessment is yet to be done," one
of the IRD sources said. He informed that the latest action was initiated to bring all
potential private taxpayers to widen the revenue base. "And the nursing homes are one
of the largest private earners," said the source.
So much so that Patan
Dental Clinic was found to be operating without any registration. Also, this was the
second time that action against Om Nursing Home was taken, the source disclosed.
The IRD investigation
team had confiscated books of account for almost a month and a half from each of the
nursing homes. And most of the nursing homes were found laxing in maintaining their
accounts straight. Furthermore, the remuneration to even well known doctors were found to
be shown far less than what they usually receive.
In addition, the source
said that nursing homes were found to collect VAT regularly from its customers. However,
most did not pay the collected VAT to their respective area revenue offices.
Justifying the latest
action of the IRD, Director General of the department Awanindra Kumar Shrestha said that a
majority of the nursing homes in their income statements showed transaction that were much
less than actual.
He informed that some
nursing homes even went to the extent of falsely explaining that they merely provided
rooms to visiting doctors on rent and that the doctor’s income were not theirs.
"This means that the nursing homes are merely taking the rent of the rooms that they
are providing to doctors, and which is not true," said Shrestha. "After all that
is not what nursing homes merely do."
He warned that
stringent action would be taken against those who act in contradiction to the existing
rules and regulations. The government in its bid to increase the base for revenue
collection had brought professional service providers like doctors, engineers and lawyers,
among others, under the VAT net last year.
Shrestha informed that
after the completion of the first phase of the programme, which is targeted against the
nursing homes, the IRD will begin its investigations against all private schools in the
valley.
Meanwhile, including
the nursing homes, the IRD has investigated 330 firms from around the country lately. Of
them, investigations against 50 business establishments have already completed, bringing
transactions worth over Rs 100 million under the VAT net, sources said. From the fifty
firms alone, revenue of over Rs 10 million was collected.
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