KATHMANDU, June 26: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has proposed increasing the tax net in the new fiscal year 2019/20 rather than increasing the rates of taxation.
The metropolis unveiled a budget of Rs 15.5 billion for fiscal year 2019/20 on Tuesday through a municipal assembly with about 39 percent of the budget allocated for the development of infrastructures.
Five casinos pay 6.6 million rupees as entertainment tax to KMC
Presenting the proposed budget at the second session of the fifth municipal assembly held at Rastriya Sabha Griha (City Hall) in the capital on Tuesday, chair of the assembly and mayor of the KMC, Bidya Sundar Shakya, said, “The metropolis does not intend to increase the rate of any tax in fiscal year 2019/20. It has, instead, decided to increase the areas under taxation.”
If the tax net is increased, more institutions in the metropolis will be subjected to taxes by the metropolis. This will likely result in more and more small-scale businesses being incorporated under the metropolis' tax net.
At the assembly, Mayor Shakya along with Deputy Mayor Hari Prabha Khadgi unveiled a budget of Rs 15,507,012,000 marking an increase of 19 percent from the budget of the preceding year. The metropolis had presented a budget of Rs 13,021,237,000 for the fiscal year 2019/20.
Speaking at the program, Deputy Mayor Khadgi claimed that the dynamics of the development needs to be stabilized in the current fiscal year in order to ensure that the budget is implemented properly. v
