Director general of the DoC
Sishir Kumar Dhungana said that the VAT and income tax non-filers in
import-export businesses reached about 32 and 50 percentage points
respectively.
Talking to The Rising Nepal, he said, “It is difficult for us to identify the
importers. There are importers who register a company in somebody else’s name
as the owner, conduct business once or twice and disappear. Such ghost
importers are difficult to identify and seldom exhibit compliance to the rules.”
According to the DoC estimates,
there are 40 – 50 thousand importers in the country but their tax compliance is
weak.
“Due to the weak tax compliance
of the importing companies, the government doesn’t know whether such traders are
in operation or not,” said Dhungana.
He stated that the department
had been conducting tax-payers’ education programme to encourage such companies
to comply with the rules.
To increase the tax compliance,
the government is implementing Exim (export-import) code system from fiscal
year 2017/18, whereby every importer and exporter should obtain the code
certificate for their international trade.
Traders have to deposit Rs. 1
million as the bank guarantee for their import-export business.
Dhungana said that the new
system, implemented as per the Customs Act, 2007, would address the menace of
tax non-filing.
After the implementation of the
new system, when the Exim code is entered into the customs, the details of
traders, including their tax compliance records, can be obtained.
“If their tax payment is due, it
will be recovered from the money deposited in their bank as a guarantee. The
new system will create a linkage between import and domestic business,” said
Dhungana.
However, president of the Nepal
Chamber of Commerce Rajesh Kazi Shrestha said that he had no idea of the ghost
importers.
“If there are such traders, the
government should increase its surveillance against them and duly punish those
flouting the laws and rules,” he said.
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