In the absence of the facility, taxpayers were previously required to travel all the way to Butwal Inland Tax Office to settle taxes. [break]
Tanka Mani Sharma, director general of Inland Revenue Department (IRD), inaugurated the service center on Monday as a part of the government´s program to open 13 such centers outside the Kathmandu Valley to facilitate taxpayers and also to increase public awareness on socio-economic benefits emanating from tax compliance.
“We had started establishing service centers to better serve the taxpayers two years ago. As such centers greatly facilitate taxpayers, people in other parts of the country have requested us to establish such centers in their areas as well,” said Sharma, adding: “We plan to open taxpayers´ service center in 48 districts by the end of their fiscal year,”
IRD has decided to expand such service centers after it found that such centers were making significant contribution in developing entrepreneurial consciousness and clean business practices.
Moreover, firms and people that earlier refrained from visiting tax offices were found quite comfortable approaching the service centers.
Given such warm response drawn by the service centers, the government has tagged it as one major reform in the revenue administration. It has also promised new programs in the new fiscal year to ensure better understanding and interaction between taxpayers and tax administrators.
“We are soon adopting a new policy that will seek small taxpayers to visit tax offices only once a year,” said Sharma. He also said that the IRD was also distributing Tax Cards to the taxpayers. “Just as you need to pay utility bills based on the card, people holding the Tax Card will need to pay an applicable amount of tax to the government,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, entrepreneurs also expressed happiness over the establishment of taxpayer service center in Palpa. “This is one big relief. Now onwards, we won´t need to make repeated visits to Butwal to settle taxes,” said Raju Maharjan, vice president of Palpa Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
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