February 26: With the pressure to meet the revenue target, tax offices have started stepped up collection of income tax and VAT. While the government is urging the tax offices to meet the target by formulating an action plan for alternative revenue collection, the tax offices have strongly emphasized on income tax and VAT collection.

Meanwhile, by issuing a public notice on Thursday, the Inland Revenue Office, Kalanki warned 56 business companies, that have not paid VAT and income tax, of taking action against them and to collect the taxes through legal process. The list of tax evaders includes construction companies, wine industry among others.

The public notice states that those who do not pay the value added tax and income tax on time should pay it within 15 days of added time. If not paid within the deadline, the tax office has a strategy to collect the tax by freezing business transactions, bank accounts and real estate as per the Income Tax Act 2058 and VAT Act 2052. According to the Inland Revenue Department, it is close to its target of revenue collection.

According to the department, lately, the income tax and VAT collection have been given priority. Legal action has been taken against those who do not comply with the rules. "Tax offices have been given the authority to collect the arrears. Those who do not pay their taxes on time will face legal action," said Deputy Director General Mukti Acharya.

Lately, even the Large Tax Payer's Office has been emphasizing on revenue collection through income tax.

Although the government has set a target of collecting revenue of Rs 1.011 trillion this year, the government was not able to collect revenue in a very encouraging manner till the mid-term review due to Covid-19. 

After the mid-term review of the current fiscal year, only Rs 3.86 billion was collected which is 1.39 percent less than the revenue collection of last year.