KATHMANDU, June 20: The government has been able to increase its revenue collection by 25.41 percent in the first ten months of this fiscal year, compared to the same period last fiscal, despite a massive fall in domestic economic activities due to the impacts of COVID-19.
According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the government collected revenue worth Rs 761 billion during mid-July 2020 and mid-May 2021, which was 94.6 percent of the targeted revenue collection for the current fiscal year. The notable rise in revenue collection has been attributed to surging rise in merchandised imports.
Govt collected only Rs 42b in taxes last month
The MoF in its monthly economic bulletin has stated that the continuous rise in imports had led to an increase in collection of customs duty, value added tax (VAT) and excise duty significantly. During the review period, the collection of customs duty amounted to Rs 168.17 billion, which surpassed the government target of Rs 160.48 billion.
Similarly, the VAT collection from internal sectors has also contributed notably to the state treasury giving a respite to the government to manage necessary financial resources. The MoF records show that the tax revenue collection from the internal activities increased by 20.5 percent to Rs 361.32 billion. It is due to the online payment system of tax liabilities that the government introduced recently, according to MoF officials.
The collection of non-tax revenue however declined by 6.49 percent to Rs 51.38 billion in the review period.
