March 9: The government has been collecting pollution tax from the public under pollution control heading for more than a decade, without any concrete plan for spending the amount.  
Although billions of rupees are collected each year from the sales of petroleum products in the name of pollution control, government agencies have not kept track of the money spent.
In the past 12 years, the government has raised around Rs 10 billion from pollution tax. Figures from the Nepal Oil Corporation show that Nepali consumers have paid pollution tax of Rs 9.80 billion to the government from the fiscal year 2065/66 to the fiscal year 2076/77. However, officials inform that the NOC does not have records of the expenses as the money goes to the federal reserve.
Nagendra Sah, deputy executive director of the corporation, informed that NOC has not spent the collected tax as they deposit the amount in the federal reserve fund every year.

"Finance Ministry might have the record," he informed.

The government had collected about Rs 2.94 billion under pollution control fee in the last fiscal year 2019/20 alone. According to NOC, around Rs 1.57 billion was collected in the previous fiscal year 2018/19. The target is to raise Rs 2.8 billion pollution control fee in the current fiscal year.
The government started levying such tax in Kathmandu Valley and across the country since 2066 BS as per the provisions of the Finance Act 2064 BS. The tax, which was earlier levied at the rate of 50 paise per litre on petrol and diesel, was increased to Rs 1.5 per litre from last May. The government still charges Rs 1.5 pollution control fee per litre of diesel and petrol.
NOC, which imports and sells petroleum products, collects the tax from the consumers through petrol pumps. Although the tax collected under this heading should be spent only for a specific purpose, the government has been spending it in various sectors.
Environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar informed that the government should make the expenditure of the pollution tax transparent. He added that the amount should only be spent for a specific purpose.