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Kathmandu Friday May 11, 2001 Baishakh 28, 2058.
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Revenue collection likely to hit
budget target
Post Report
KATHMANDU, May 10 - Coupled with healthy economic
growth rate for the second consecutive year, the continued double-digit growth in revenue
collection has heightened the chances of achieving the budgetary revenue target.
The healthy growth of 18.8 per cent in the first
nine months of the current fiscal year has bolstered the confidence of the government
officials of achieving revenue target set for the current year.
"The current trend of revenue mobilization
strongly indicates that the budgetary revenue target for the current year would be gained.
And, we are confident about it," said Bhoj Raj Ghimire, Chief of the Revenue
Department at the Ministry of Finance.
Finance Minister, in his budget for the fiscal year
2000/01, had set a target of Rs 52.98 billion revenue collection, which was termed by some
as the ‘mission impossible’. Critics said the revenue target was
‘deliberately over estimated’ to balance the skyrocketing regular expenditure
swelled by an unexpected rise in the pay of civil servants and soaring security expenses.
According to the statistics of Ministry of Finance
(MoF), the total revenue collected by mid-April has touched almost Rs 33 billion, which is
62 per cent of the targeted revenue of the current fiscal year and almost 19 per cent more
than the amount collected during the same period last year.
Though the officials are confident about hitting
the target, the challenge to accumulate around Rs 23 billion during the rest four months
must not be underestimated, particularly, at a time when the current growth rate is still
falling behind of the budgetary growth target of 22 per cent.
"As the revenue collection in the last quarter
always speeds up and the performance of the customs revenue after army mobilization has
been encouraging, we are much optimistic of hitting the target," an MoF official
said.
An analysis of the total revenue collection
breakdown, reveals that tax revenue, which commands a lion’s share of 80 percent in
the total national revenue, is satisfactory as compared to the non-tax revenue.
Rs 27 billion has been collected, which is 63.3 per
cent of the targeted tax revenue of Rs. 42.48 billion and it is 17.5 per cent more
compared to the same period last year. Despite an impressive growth of 25.3 per cent, the
achievement in the non-tax front is not much admirable. Out of the targeted Rs 10.5
billion, just Rs 5.78 billion was collected by mid-April.
Despite the plunging imports, the customs tax
collection has been increased by 14.1 per cent and has reached Rs 8.84 billion, which is
66 per cent of the total target.
Value added tax (VAT) collection registered an
increment of over 17.3 per cent. Out of the targeted Rs 13.50 billion, Rs 8.84 billion has
been collected till the end of third quarter, however, with drawback of Rs 825 million,
the net VAT collection is little over Rs 8 billion.
Similarly, the collection of income tax, the third
largest contributor to the total revenue, remained moderate. Of the targeted Rs 10.6
million, the accumulation by the mid April has touched Rs 6.15 billion, which is 58 per
cent of the target and 26.8 per cent more than that of the corresponding period last year.
With a rise of over 22 per cent compared to last
year, the excise duty revenue has touched Rs 2.7 billion, which is over 72 per cent of the
budgetary target of Rs 3.75 billion.
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