Will govt refund tax collected since July 16

The government has to refund the taxes collected since the last one week – the beginning of the current fiscal year on July 16 – as Finance Bills presented by the incumbent government were rejected by Parliament today. However, the government can continue to spend as usual as the Appropriations Bill has already been passed.
"Since the Finance Bills have failed, the Periodic Tax Recovery Act, 1955 will become redundant, and the government has to refund tax collected under that Act," according to former finance secretary Rameshwor Khanal.
Though it has never happened before in the history of Nepal, the government has to refund the taxes collected since July 16, the beginning of the current fiscal year, following rejection of the Finance Bills by Parliament on Friday, he added.
The Periodic Tax Recovery Act 1955, which is meant to help the government continue to mobilise taxes, came automatically into effect from the day after finance minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel presented the budget for the fiscal year 2016-17 on June 28. And it would have been automatically superseded had the Finance Bills been approved by Parliament today.
The Periodic Tax Recovery Act, 1955 authorises the government to collect taxes for 6 months until the Finance Bills are duly approved by the House. "But when the Finance Bills are rejected, then the Periodic Tax Recovery Act also becomes redundant," he said, adding that any taxes collected under the said laws need to be refunded.
Chief of the Customs Department Shishir Dhungana, however, said that the government would now bring in a Periodic Tax Recovery Directive to help mobilise taxes from Sunday.
Parliament had scheduled approval of the corollary bills on July 13 as it had already approved the Appropriation Bill, paving the way for expenditures by the government from the beginning of the new fiscal year. But the incumbent government was reduced to a minority as one of the key coalition partners, CPN (Maoist Centre), withdrew its support on July 13. The Finance Bills then became uncertain.
The political tug-of-war that has left the fate of the budget uncertain is a historic blunder, Khanal added.
Nepal has seen many things – that it had never witnessed in its history – over the past decade, some good others bad. And as if that were not enough, the country could now also see a new budget altogether for the current fiscal year 2016-17 once a new government is formed.
With the House today rejecting the Finance Bills – including the Finance Bill 2016, the Bill to Mobilise Internal Loans, and the Loan and Guarantee Bill (21st amendment) – the future of the budget introduced by the Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli government has also become uncertain as the new government will be in moral pressure to bring new budget.
It will eventually hit an already battered economy hard.