Revenue Deaprtment to ensure effective billing system during festival

The revenue administration is starting a 10-day campaign to create awareness among the shoppers and making billing system more effective during the festival.

Inland Revenue Department (IRD) – in close coordination with Forum for Protection of Consumer Rights Nepal – is starting a 10-day intensive market monitoring’ campaign from tomorrow, informed the department here today.

The campaign will help make billing system more effective, director general of the department Tanka Mani Sharma said, adding that the festival will see more transactions but the lack of awareness among the public has encouraged the low billing that has hit the revenue mobilisation.

The department has thus decided to intensify monitoring that will help increase value added tax (VAT) mobilsation that has been falling short of the target in recent months, the department claimed.

“Billing is key to VAT mobilisation, but under billing has fuelled the revenue leakage hurting the government coffer, he added. “Awareness among the shoppers is a must to improve the billing system.”

The department aims at monitoring over 20,000 traders – including the Kathmandu valley and major cities across the country – up from over 15,000 it had monitored last year.

Some 100 teams, with five in a team, will be deployed in the major market across the country to inform the public about the billing, Sharma said, adding that the campaign will also help the department collect information about the traders, who fail to issue bills. “They could be brought to book.”

According to general secretary of Forum for Protection of Consumer Rights Nepal Jyoti Baniya, the culture of issuing bill has to be developed. “Such a campaign could make a big difference to educate the public on billing system,” he said, adding that the forum will also deploy around 55 individuals to help the campaign.