POKHARA, Aug 20, 2012
Pokhara Sub Metropolitan City (PSMC)´s laxness in implementing tax policy and setting clear priorities and goals for revenue collection has caused revenue losses worth crores of rupees annually. The financial report of the PSMC for the last three years shows that it has lagged behind in meeting its revenue collection targets year after year.
Officials say the PMSC has consistently failed to meet the targets because it has failed to maintain proper records of the tax payers and hasn´t conducted any review or research on the actual regular tax payers. The PSMC officials concede that the revenue targets fall short by more than crores rupees every year because of the sub-metropolitan city´s failure to bring high tax payers into the tax net. According to a tax official, high tax payers are reluctant to pay taxes citing immunities to the small tax payers.
The PSMC collected only 26 crores in the fiscal year 2011/12 which is 10 crores short of the targeted revenue goal.
According to Shivahari Sharma, a tax official at PSMC, the metropolitan city had set the goal of collecting 36 crores 85 lakh from different tax sources. The metropolitan office, however, gave various reasons for collecting only 71 percent of the target set.
In the last fiscal year, the PMSC was able to meet the target just from the revenues collected from land tax, tax on real estates, map approvals, penalties, rent from guest house and conference halls as well as seizure of deposits.
In the fiscal year 2010/11, the revenue failed to meet the target by 15 percent while in 2011/12 the target was short by 20 percent.
“Without brining all tax payers into the tax net, the target cannot be met,” said Sharma.
However PSMC has expressed its inability to collect the data on real tax payers due to the lack of human resources and means.
According to another official, the sub-metropolitan city has records of just 25 percent of the high tax payers out of the total.
He was of the opinion that the metropolitan office has failed to meet its revenue targets as it has been relying on the incomplete data on tax payers.
“The trend of evading taxes is another reason for the losses," Sharma said.
The sub-metropolitan city has so far shied away from making the names of the tax evaders public because of the political, economic and social clout wielded by such evaders. Another significant failure of the sub-metropolitan city has been its failure to enforce mandatory tax on around 42 private boarding schools operating in the city.
Source: Republica
Pokhara Sub Metropolitan City (PSMC)´s laxness in implementing tax policy and setting clear priorities and goals for revenue collection has caused revenue losses worth crores of rupees annually. The financial report of the PSMC for the last three years shows that it has lagged behind in meeting its revenue collection targets year after year.
Officials say the PMSC has consistently failed to meet the targets because it has failed to maintain proper records of the tax payers and hasn´t conducted any review or research on the actual regular tax payers. The PSMC officials concede that the revenue targets fall short by more than crores rupees every year because of the sub-metropolitan city´s failure to bring high tax payers into the tax net. According to a tax official, high tax payers are reluctant to pay taxes citing immunities to the small tax payers.
The PSMC collected only 26 crores in the fiscal year 2011/12 which is 10 crores short of the targeted revenue goal.
According to Shivahari Sharma, a tax official at PSMC, the metropolitan city had set the goal of collecting 36 crores 85 lakh from different tax sources. The metropolitan office, however, gave various reasons for collecting only 71 percent of the target set.
In the last fiscal year, the PMSC was able to meet the target just from the revenues collected from land tax, tax on real estates, map approvals, penalties, rent from guest house and conference halls as well as seizure of deposits.
In the fiscal year 2010/11, the revenue failed to meet the target by 15 percent while in 2011/12 the target was short by 20 percent.
“Without brining all tax payers into the tax net, the target cannot be met,” said Sharma.
However PSMC has expressed its inability to collect the data on real tax payers due to the lack of human resources and means.
According to another official, the sub-metropolitan city has records of just 25 percent of the high tax payers out of the total.
He was of the opinion that the metropolitan office has failed to meet its revenue targets as it has been relying on the incomplete data on tax payers.
“The trend of evading taxes is another reason for the losses," Sharma said.
The sub-metropolitan city has so far shied away from making the names of the tax evaders public because of the political, economic and social clout wielded by such evaders. Another significant failure of the sub-metropolitan city has been its failure to enforce mandatory tax on around 42 private boarding schools operating in the city.
Source: Republica
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