Encouraging start to revenue collection, Rs 11.74 billion in the first month

The Finance Ministry has collected Rs 11.74 billion revenue in the first month of the current fiscal year.
"The collection is Rs 4.02 billion more than that in the last fiscal year's same month," said revenue secretary Krishnahari Baskota. During the first month of the last fiscal year, the ministry had collected Rs 7.72 billion revenue. The new collection is 52.2 per cent higher than the corresponding month's in the fiscal year 2008-09 when the then finance minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai had set a target of Rs 147.72 billion. However, the revenue collection at the end of that fiscal year exceeded the target.
This fiscal year also, incumbent finance minister Surendra Pandey has set a target of Rs 176.50 billion revenue collection. He announced an accommodative budget of Rs 285.93 billion for the fiscal 2009-10 on July 13.
"The target for the first month was Rs 9.78 billion," Baskota said adding that the target has been easily exceeded and the finance ministry has collected Rs 11.74 billion.
"The result of the first month indicates that the target for this fiscal year also can be achieved easily like last fiscal year's," said an exultant revenue secretary, attributing reforms in the tax administration, new entrents in the tax net, industrial and trade-friendly atmosphere to the encouraging tax collection.
Last fiscal year, the finance ministry managed to mop up Rs 1.51 billion under the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Sources (VDIS) scheme that brought around 4,000 more new tax payers in the tax net.
However, this fiscal year the government is starting a campaign to register for service sector employees and professional consultants in the permanent account number (PAN ) to boost revenue. The government is starting to distribute PAN card to all income earners from Monday. According to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), the president, prime minister, ministers and other high-profile officials getting PAN cards in the first phase. It will then be gradually implemented to government employees and other income earners.
The PAN card will bear ID code of the cardholder and one can easily get income details and tax clearance statements from the Inland Revenue Offices (IROs) by producing it. Introduction of PAN Card that was announced in the budget for this fiscal year was mandatory for all income groups from 2009-10. The government believes that the new system will generate additional revenue of Rs 1.50 billion. It will also enable taxpayers to get tax clearance report instantly. The government believes that the over 200,000 taxpayers wil come under tax net by the end of this fiscal year. It also believes that the program will raise the incidence of tax compliance.