KATHMANDU, August 22: The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) has shown concern over the evasion of taxes in cases of financial transactions being carried out through various social media platforms.

The OAG in its 58th annual report has said the government agencies are completely unaware of the advertisements and other commercial activities that are being carried out by using the social media platforms. The government body looks after auditing of the transactions of government entities, local bodies and other agencies that are connected to the state mechanism.

According to Nepal Telecom Authority, there is a growing use of various social media platforms like Viber, Messenger, Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, imo and Skype, among others. They have been attracting advertisements in increasing numbers to promote businesses by entrepreneurs.

Likewise, a number of meeting platforms like Zoom, Cisco and Webex are being used to conduct webinars and online classes, mainly after the pandemic hit the country last year. Many users have been paying the parent companies to subscribe to these platforms.

However, the government authorities neither have records of such transactions nor have they taken any initiative so far to track these activities, resulting in a big loss of revenue for the state, says the OAG report.

 
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