KATHMANDU, April 17: The government has collected more than Rs 100 billion in eight years from the infrastructure tax imposed on petroleum products. Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has been paying tax at the customs point while importing fuel.
In the period from 2015 to March 29, 2023, the NOC has collected Rs 194.5 billion in infrastructure tax from petroleum products. According to Manoj Thakur, spokesperson of NOC, the tax levied on petroleum products is deposited directly into the government's coffers. "Since 2015, we have been providing infrastructure tax during the import of petroleum products," he said.
Since 2015, the NOC has been collecting the tax collected from petroleum products and providing it to the state fund. The government has started collecting infrastructure development tax since 2015.
The government, through the budget of the financial year 2015/16, arranged for a tax of five rupees per liter on petroleum products at the customs point for the construction of the infrastructure of the 1200 MW Budhi Gandaki project.
"Tax Settlement Commission itself was against law"
At present, the government is collecting tax of Rs 10 per liter in the name of infrastructure development tax rather than in the name of Budhi Gandaki project.
The government collected Rs 1.16 billion in the financial year 2015/16, Rs 9.43 billion in 2016/17, Rs 11.36 billion in 2017/18, and Rs 12.41 billion in the financial year 2018/19 from the infrastructure tax imposed on petroleum products.
In the year 2019/20, Rs 13.97 billion were collected. In the year 2020/21, it collected Rs 22.86 billion. In the year 2021/22, it collected Rs 24.95 billion in taxes.
Similarly, Rs 13.29 billion tax has been collected in the period up to March 29, 2023 of the financial year 2022/23. The government, through the budget of 2015/16, had made arrangements to levy a tax of five rupees per liter on petroleum products at the customs point for the construction of infrastructure. The government, which was earlier imposing an infrastructure tax of Rs five per liter on diesel, petrol and jet fuel, has increased the tax to Rs 10 per liter from the previous financial year.
The government had increased the tax on petroleum products in the budget of the year 2020/21. Almost Rs 34 billion have been spent for the compensation of Budhi Gandaki hydropower project.
The meeting of the Council of Ministers held on June 28, 2022, decided to build the Budhi Gandaki hydropower project through indigenous investment and company model. According to the same decision, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation registered Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Public Company on August 31. Even after seven months of the company's registration, the company has not been able to proceed with its work due to the fact that the resources of 10 million rupees needed for the company could not be managed.
According to the capital structure of the company, there is a provision that the bank account of the company should have at least Rs 10 million. So far, they have not been able to get business permission from the company registrar's office as they have not been able to manage that much amount. In the budget of the current financial year 2022/23, it was mentioned that this project will be built from internal sources.
It is mentioned in the memorandum of association of Budhi Gandaki Jalvidyut Limited that the authorized capital of the proposed company will be Rs 60 billion. It is said that the authorized capital will be divided into 600 million ordinary shares at the rate of Rs 100 per share.
