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Kathmandu Saturday February 09, 2002 Magh 27, 2058.
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Govt spreads net to snare tax
defaulters
By Satyendra Timilsina
KATHMANDU, Feb 8: With the deadline for the
Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) to end on February 12, the Inland Revenue
Department (IRD), has constituted a committee to take action against tax defaulters.
The committee, formed recently, is represented
by high-level officials of the IRD, the Revenue Investigation Department (RID) and the
Ministry of Finance.
Vidhyadhar Mallik, Director General of the IRD,
speaking to The Kathmandu Post, today said that much of the committee’s work would be
field-based, and it would be providing support to the IRD’s VDIS monitoring committee
headed by Avanindra Kumar Shrestha, Deputy Director General of the IRD.
Mallik said that he was determined to take stern
action against tax evaders, and that would begin from Feburary 13. "The officials are
waiting for the remaining four days to convince the general public to pay tax, and then
the department would initiate action procedures," he said.
The Finance Minister, Dr Ram Sharan Mahat,
during last July’s budget presentation for the current fiscal year, had requested
citizens to disclose their income sources under a special scheme by last January 13. But
the deadline had to be extended by a month on the request of the business community.
The government was able to collect Rs 440
million within the earlier deadline of January 13.
The Finance Minister during the budgetary
announcement had stated that the income sources of those individuals who declare their
assets under this scheme would not be further investigated.
"The scheme is the last opportunity for
declaring income sources, and the deadline will not be extended further," said Mallik
firmly. "During the remaining four days, the IRD will concentrate on framing legal
procedures on how to deal with the defaulters."
Another source at the IRD informed that a
separate investigation committee has been formed in all Inland Revenue Offices, which is
expected to trace the tax defaulters.
The source also dismissed the possibility of the
CIAA (Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority) using the disclosures made under
the VDIS, for its own investigative purposes. "The law clearly states that the
documents cannot be used as legal evidence in other cases," he said.
The IRD has already prepared a defaulters’
list of 1000 persons against whom thorough investigations are to be carried out. The
individuals in the list, officials say, are thought to have assets disproportionate to
their declared sources of income.
The list includes professionals such as doctors,
engineers, lawyers and auditors. The IRD has also enlisted government and non-government
employees, social workers, teachers, businessmen, industrialists, leaders of political
parties, and other tax defaulters.
Tax evasion in Nepal is endemic, and has been a
stumbling block to the government’s drive to raise revenue. With the VDIS, the
government hopes to correct that situation if everything goes according to plan.
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