Government revises revenue target upward

Encouraged by the whopping revenue collection trend, the government has revised its target upwards by Rs 13 billion to Rs 190 billion.

Earlier in the budget for the fiscal year 2009-10, the government had set a revenue target of Rs 176.5 billion for this fiscal year. "However, the revenue growth trend made us revise the target upward by over Rs 13 billion," said revenue secretary Krishnahari Baskota.

By the end of the ninth month (mid-April) this fiscal year, revenue collection surpassed the target by Rs 3.71 billion. "Our target for the ninth month was Rs 122.82 billion," he said, adding that the collection is 28.2 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year. "Last year by the end of ninth month, we had collected Rs 98.67 billion," Baskota said.

The encouraging collection by the end of ninth month is also due to the timing as its the time of paying installment of income tax to the government.

Apart from that, Nepal Telecom paid Rs 3.30 billion cash dividends to the government. The NT has approved 35 per cent cash dividends to its share holders. The cash dividends made government non-tax collection swell to Rs 16 billion, making it the fourth largest contributor to the government coffer.

The largest contributor for the coffer is still the value added tax (VAT) that has contributed Rs 39 billion to the government coffer in the ninth month of the current fiscal year. VAT is followed by the customs that has contributed Rs 25.10 billion and the third largest contributor is the income tax that has contributed Rs 23.25 billion.

By the end of eight month, Falgun (mid-March), the government had collected Rs 105.58 billion. By the end of seventh month of the current fiscal year Magh (mid-February), the collection stood at Rs 94.28 billion, surpassing its own target of Rs 90.41 billion.

Since past few years, the revenue collection has seen an increasing trend.

In the last fiscal year, the government had set a target of Rs 142 billion. However, by the end of the last fiscal year, the government had exceeded the target to collect Rs 145 billion.

The collection trend

First month (Shrawan) -- Rs 11.47 billion

Second month (Bhadra) -- Rs 22.55 billion

Third month (Ashwin) -- Rs 34.32 billion

Fourth month (Kartik) -- Rs 46.67 billion

Fifth month (Mangsir) -- Rs 58.60 billion

Sixth month (Poush) -- Rs 79.68 billion

Seventh month (Magh) -- Rs 94.28 billion

Eighth month (Falgun) -- Rs 105.58 billion

Ninth month (Chaitra) -- Rs 126.53 billion