Bhaktapur municipality and Lalitpur metropolitan city have increased revenue collection after getting elected people’s representatives while Kathmandu has failed to increase its. Bhaktapur has raised revenue collection by 25 percent while Lalitpur has increased its by 15 percent.
“Revenue collection has already increased by 15 percent in comparison to the last fiscal year due to the policies adopted by the elected representatives,” Chief of Revenue Section at Lalitpur Metropolitan City Dilli Raj Shakya told Setopati.
Lalitpur had declared the last year as Tax Year 2074 and also brought other programs including monitoring campaign to increase revenue collection.
Lalitpur had collected Rs 410 million in the last fiscal year but has already raked in Rs 470 million in the 11 months in the current fiscal year. It aims to generate Rs 550-600 million by the end of fiscal year ending mid-July.
Lalitpur had offered discount in fees and fines to increase revenue collection. It provided 10 percent discount on land revenue, house tax, and business tax in the fiscal year 2074/75, and waived all the fines on dues, and provided 10 percent discount on all the accrued dues.
“Lalitpur Metropolitan City had brought a package to sensitize the people. The people’s representatives during the programs informed the people why they should pay taxes and what benefits they will get by paying tax. The big taxpayers came into contact due to the scheme of discount. They are still coming,” Shakya stated.
Bhaktapur, that had raised Rs 250 million in the last fiscal year, has already raised Rs 310 million this year. The municipality had deployed teams for door-to-door campaign for three months since February to raise revenue collection, according to Chief of Revenue Section Prabhas Chalise. It had also raised fees for tourists.
Kathmandu, however, has not been able to increase revenue collection. It had formed a revenue consultation committee under deputy mayor to increase revenue collection but the committee could not work well.
Kathmandu, that had raised Rs 1.79 billion in the last fiscal year, has only collected Rs 1.60 billion by now. “We estimate it to go beyond the last year’s total in the remaining days,” Chief of Revenue Section of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Rajya Prakash Pradhananga said.
Schedule 8 of the constitution allows the local bodies to collect local taxes (wealth tax, house rent tax, land and building registration fee, motor vehicle tax), service charge, tourism fee, advertisement tax, business tax, entertainment tax, and land revenue. The local bodies are also liable to get some share of VAT and excise duty.
The laws about intergovernmental fiscal management and local governance also mention about the revenues that the local bodies can collect.
