KATHMANDU May 13: All eight writ petitions filed by the internet service providing company Worldlink Communications against the government have been scrapped by the Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday.

A joint bench of Justices Hari Prasad Phuyal and Dr Nahakul Subedi refused Worldlink's claim by scrapping the petitions. 

With the SC's move, the government now can collect royalty revenue and Rural Telecommunications Development Fees (RTDF) from Worldlink Communications.  

Likewise, billions of rupees is likely to be added to the state coffers after the SC verdict.

The SC ruled that telecommunications service providers must pay taxes on maintenance fees.

The SC dismissed a writ petition filed by telecommunications service providers challenging the taxation of maintenance charges.

The government's decision to levy taxes on maintenance fees has been upheld by the SC.

Since the fiscal year 2072/073 BS, the Office of the Auditor General had pointed out that the government collected the royalty revenue from the internet service providers (ISPs) as such money was not received to the state coffer.

From a research study of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MoCIT) carried out last year, the ISPs including Worldlink Communications were found to have evaded the tax.  

The MoCIT had formed a study team led by Joint Secretary Gaurav Giri to probe into the tax evasion from the ISPs.  

As pointed out by the study team, nine ISPs have to pay Rs 3.64 billion in royalty revenue and Rural Telecommunications Development Fees to the government. Under the headings, Worldlink Communications has to pay Rs 1.96 billion.

 
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