KATHMANDU, March 1: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has decided to ask the government to furnish it progress report on recovering capital gains tax (CGT) from Ncell.

In the second week of January, the house panel had given a three-month deadline to the finance ministry and tax authorities to recover CGT from the share transaction worth around Rs 143 billion from Ncell. 
PAC said it took the fresh decision as it has received no response from the government agencies on the issue.

“The decision was taken as tax authorities did not report any progress on the given task,” Surendra Aryal, the under-secretary of PAC, said. He also said that PAC will write to the finance ministry and tax authorities on Wednesday, asking them to immediately report progress in CGT collection.

In another meeting held on January 25, the house panel had decided to restrict Ncell from rolling out 4G services until CGT is cleared. 

Tax officials are yet to assess tax amount on transfer of shares in Ncell by Swedish company TeliaSonera to Malaysian telecom company Axiata. 

Lawmaker Ram Hari Khatiwada said tax authorities were dragging their feet to recover CGT from Ncell shares transfer.

According to Khatiwada’s estimate, the government will receive another Rs 23 billion which is 7 percent of the annual budget earmarked for all infrastructure projects in the current fiscal year. 

Ncell has paid only about Rs 10 billion so far.

 
• public accounts committee
 
• ncell