KMC projects its income for next three fiscal years

Published On: January 12, 2023 01:30 PM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, Jan 12: Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has projected the income for the next three years. The KMC’s income has been projected for the coming financial years 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26.

The income has been projected to be Rs 11.80 billion for the year 2023/24, Rs 13.12 billion for 2024/25 and Rs 13.66 billion for 2025/26, according to head of KMC Revenue Department, Dr Shivaraj Adhikari.

Despite the fact that revenue could not be collected in the past three years due to the pandemic, the metropolis believes that the income will be in line with the target in the coming years. For the current year, KMC has set a target of collecting Rs 10.39 billion in revenue, but it has already collected Rs 4.34 billion by December 30, the official said.

During the same period last year, the revenue collection was Rs 3.69 billion. Dr Adhikari said that they have managed to collect Rs 10 million more revenue this year compared to last year. However, the target of revenue collection was only Rs 9.8 billion as there was still risk of COVID-19.

Similarly, Dr Adhikari said that although there were some problems in revenue collection due to the pandemic in the past year, if the revenue collection takes place under the current conditions this year, there will be no problem in meeting the target.

“This year, the amount of external grants is low. There is no problem in internal revenue collection,” he said. Lately, KMC has been stricter in revenue collection. It has been collecting revenue under 36 headings including property tax, home maintenance, business tax, advertisement tax, entertainment tax, land tax, value added tax and vehicle tax.

Similarly, there is a plan to review property tax for the year 2023/24. As this will be determined based on the accessibility and nature of the road, it is said that a decision will be made to ask the ward office to recommend the nature of the road after discussion.

The metropolis has not reviewed property tax for the past seven years. As per the Revenue Act 2075BS, tax rates can be reviewed every two years.