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Kathmandu Saturday March 17, 2001 Chaitra 04, 2057.
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Biratnagar
VAT office unlikely to raise targeted revenue
Post Report
BIRATNAGAR, March 16 - Going by the revenue
collected by the Biratnagar Value Added Tax (VAT) Office in the first eight months of the
current fiscal year, the office is unlikely to meet its target of revenue collection.
The office has collected a revenue of Rs 111.4
million in VAT and Rs 255 million in excise duty, within the first eight months of the
current fiscal year, while it had targeted to collect a revenue of Rs 555 million
including VAT and excise duty in the current fiscal year.
One of the factors responsible for the poor
collection of revenue is the growing practice of not issuing bill to customers among most
of the local business firms.
It is mandatory that all business firms dealing
in value added taxable goods should issue bills with clear mention of the respective
firm’s name and serial number to their customers upon purchase of goods or services.
But the reluctance of business firms to issue bills to customers has become a major
problem in the implementation of VAT.
And some business firms ask for ten per cent
extra amount if buyers insisted to have bill. "If you need bills, you have to pay
VAT", say the local businessmen. However, officials at the local VAT office say that
they have taken on the spot action against those businessmen who ask for additional ten
per cent to issue VAT bills.
Not only that. First, they discourage the
customers by asking additional amount for issuing bill. And even if they issue bills they
provide the fake ones.
Madhu Kumar Marasini, Chief of VAT office
Biratnagar, says that they have taken action against those businessmen who either do not
issue bills or issue spurious bills on the spot. He said that the office fined Rs 2,000
each to 20 firms for not issuing VAT bills.
However, an official at the customs point in
Biratnagar says that VAT office Biratnagar has not been able to take action against any
business firm evading VAT through under-invoicing.
Since VAT is already included in the goods and
services, the customers do not have to pay extra amount for receiving VAT bills.
Apart from the non-cooperation from the business
community, the indifference of the customers has also affected the efficacy of VAT
implementation. Most of the local customers say "what’s the use of asking for
VAT bills?"
"Businessmen should include VAT in the
sales price to make their transactions transparent. But whether the customers ask for bill
or not there should be only one price", says Marasini.
If any business firm with transaction exceeding
2 million rupees are found not registered with the VAT office and if the transactions of
any firm differ from customs declarance letter and the record of Revenue Investigation
Department (RID), we take action against them, he said.
If any business firm imports goods worth over Rs
10,000 at a time or imports goods worth over Rs 200,000 in a year, such firms should be
registered with the VAT office.
Marasini said that for the effective
implementation of VAT, consumers should be made aware in a massive scale and as VAT
collection is directly related with the retailers, its success largely depends on their
cooperation. However, he also admitted that enough awareness programs have not been
conducted to make the consumers aware about VAT.
The tendency among the traders of ever
exaggerating stocks and under invoicing are other problems in VAT implementation, says
Marasini. As customs valuation of imported goods is made on the basis of invoicing, it has
resulted in under-invoicing, which affects even the retail level, he says.
Altogether, 1,488 firms have been registered
with the Biratnagar VAT office so far.
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