Friday, July 19, 2019

Transport bodies transform into companies

The transport committees and associations – that are infamous for running transport syndicate – throughout the country has formally transformed into companies from today.
Organising a formal programme in the Valley today, the Federation of Nepali National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE) announced that they have transformed themselves into company modality in line with government’s direction across the country. The government had been claiming to end the transport syndicate a year ago. But it has been extending the date – in the request of the transport entrepreneurs – to transform their committees under the company modality.
“All the transport bodies under FNNTE have transformed themselves into company modality as asked by the government,” general secretary of FNNTE Saroj Sitaula, said, adding that they expect support from the government in the future to strengthen and further improve the public transportation sector of the country.
The transformation of transport bodies into companies has ended the syndicate system that existed in the public transportation sector, announced minister for Transport and Physical Infrastructure Raghubir Mahaseth, inaugurating the programme.
“The government is preparing to constitute transportation management authority,” he said, adding that the authority will address overall issues of the transportation sector. “The government has drafted the bill and is likely to table it in the upcoming meetings of the parliament.”
The government had directed transport committees to operate only after registering under the company modality more than one year ago. But they had been making one or the other excuses. The government then had frozen the bank accounts and other assets of the transport committees to force them register as a ‘company’.
Though practically, there will be no difference between a transportation committee and a transport company, the only difference is that the transport companies will come under government tax net as transport committees were exempt of the tax. 
The public transport sector has transactions worth billions of rupees annually but they are not under the income tax net. Thus, the move will help government mobilise the tax from the public transport sector.
There are over 200,000 public vehicles, including passenger and goods-carrying vehicles across the country, according to the government data that has also claimed that transport committees and associations are expected to be almost 1,500 in number in the country.

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