High-level Committee on Tax System Reforms submits report to government

KATHMANDU, MARCH 31: The High-level Recommendation Committee on Tax System Reforms has submitted its study report to the government. The Committee handed over the report to Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun today. The government had made provision for constituting this committee in the budget statement for fiscal year 2024/25.

Under this provision in the budget statement, a meeting of the Council of Ministers on September 15, 2023, constituted the Committee. Former Finance Minister and Finance Secretary Bidhyadhar Mallik was the coordinator of the committee while former secretary Laxman Aryal, professor at the Tribhuvan University, Central Department of Economics Dr Ram Prasad Gyawali and former administrator and customs expert Ram Prasad Dahal were its members.

The committee prepared a 258-page report with 140 annexes in six months. The report has made recommendations on various topics of the economy, including increasing revenue mobilization, creating new employment, reforms in tax-related laws, tax rate, tax administration and revenue structure.

Receiving the report, Finance Minister Pun expressed the government’s commitment to implementing the suggestions pointed out by the report. He said the report has come at an appropriate time in the context of difficulty in bearing even the general expenses from the government revenues of the dire need to attract domestic and foreign investors to bring in maximum investment into the country.