Revenue collection picks up but still short of target

KATHMANDU, May 18, 2012

The government has mobilized Rs 190.08 billion in revenue over the first ten months of 2011/12, posting a growth of 19.6 percent in the same period last year.

As the revenue growth targeted for the fiscal year is 20 percent, the collection is short of the target. “But we are optimistic about attaining the annual target, which is about Rs 242 billion, as the rate of collections that  had slid through mid-January till mid-March has gone up now,” said Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Baskota.

The revenue collection at the end of six months, that is, by mid-January 2012, had touched Rs 111.03 billion, recording an increase of 21.6 percent over the revenue collected in the same period last year.

But the growth trend had suddenly nosedived to 17.4 percent by the end of the eighth month (that is, mid-March). In the ninth month, collections had grown by 18.1 percent and performance has further improved at the end of mid-May.

The breakdown of collections from different sources shows VAT contributed more than 31 percent in the total revenue collected so far. Collections from VAT over the first 10 months of 2011/12 stood at Rs 59.40 billion.

Income Tax was the second biggest contributor and generated Rs 39.35 billion during the period.

Likewise, collections from customs duty totaled at Rs 33.81 billion, while excise duty generated Rs 23.97 billion in revenue during the period. Collections from registration fee and vehicles tax remained less than target and stood at Rs 3.09 billion and Rs 3.18 billion respectively.

Likewise, non-tax sources, generated only around Rs 27.28 billion in revenue.

Source: Republica

Bank staff involved in fake declarations leading to illegal indian currency (IC) withdrawals

Preliminary investigation has shown that employees of some banks have been involved in misappropriation of huge amount of Indian Currency (IC) in collusion with traders who produced fake customs' documents.

"Our initial finding suggests that bank staff assisted the business firms that produced fake demand drafts and customs declaration forms to abuse IC," said a source at the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

Officials of the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) who are investigating into the cases of IC misappropriation worth Rs 1 billion by eight firms confirmed that almost all customs declaration forms submitted to NIC Bank branch at Birgunj appeared to be fake.

"While studying the documents we found almost all transactions of IC through NIC Bank were based on the fake customs declaration forms," Shanta Bahadur Shrestha, director general of DRI, told Republica on Saturday. Shrestha said investigation team from DRI found that those firms produced 599 fake customs declaration forms to different banks. "However, we are still to calculate the total amount of IC misappropriation from those customs declaration forms," said Shrestha.

He said documents submitted in other banks are also suspected to be fake because the same firms are involved in transactions with those banks as well.

An investigation team that was dispatched by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) on Wednesday has already sought clarifications from six commercial banks through which eight firms in Birgunj managed to draw huge amount of IC by producing fake customs documents.

The NRB team led by Deputy Director Chet Prasad Upreti began investigations into the cases in Birgunj-based branches of NIC Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Laxmi Bank, Everest Bank and Siddhartha Bank. Public sector bank, Nepal Bank Ltd is also under the scanner of the investigation after transactions from the bank worth Rs 8 million was found suspicious.

Those firms withdrew Rs 630 million from NIC Bank, Rs 11.8 million from Everest Bank, Rs 32.3 million from Laxmi Bank, Rs 7.7 million from Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Rs 60.4 million from Siddhartha Bank and Rs 16.4 million from Nepal Investment Bank. Those firms are also found to have opened accounts with Sunrise Bank, Nabil Bank, Global Bank and Bank of Kathmandu.

An investigation carried out by DRI had found Maxwell Computer, Shyam Galla Bhandar, Jaya Mata Di International, Digital World and GS Traders of producing fake customs documents to withdraw huge amount of IC from different commercial banks. Five proprietors of those firms have been taken into custody.

In other cases of suspected IC misappropriation, DRI has sealed Nitesh Brothers, Jaibaba Amar Nath and Gangotri Gallaghar in Birgunj and put Dinesh Gupta, proprietor of those firms, behind the bars.

Source: Republica