KATHMANDU, Aug 14: Lawmaker Hridayash Tripathi has demanded interference from the federal government on arbitrary taxation by the local units across the country.
Speaking at the special hour of the House of Representatives meeting on Monday, Tripathi demanded immediate annulment of such decisions.
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“Local units have been adding tax over the tax on the people. A jyotish (fortune teller) in Syangja has to pay Rs 2,000 as tax and the local units across the nation have been imposing tax on chicken, pigeons and even on bicycle. I fear whether they would impose tax on human bodies one day,” Tripathi vented his ire in the House.
“I warn the government to be cautious about such activities because it could leave a negative message about federalism,” added Tripathi, an independent lawmaker who won a seat in the parliament from the erstwhile CPN-UML ticket.
He was of the view that if serious attention is not paid to the issue, it would affect the entire state mechanism including federalism.
Tripathi, who is yet to formally join the ruling Nepal Communist Party, demanded the parliament to curb such activities and asked the government to take action against it.
Opposing the arbitrary tax collection, Tripathi termed the decisions of the local units to impose tax without any framework as failure of the tax system. He also accused the political parties of not listening to their demands while delegating more power to the provinces than the local units while drafting the new constitution.
