The House of Representatives (HoR) meeting on Monday passed the ‘Financial Bill, 2079’ with majority.
The Financial Bill was proposed for approval of the house by Minister for Finance Janardan Sharma. Prior to this, the lawmakers had focused reforms on the existing tax system adding that there are additional burdens on taxpayers as the ambit of tax remains unchanged.
Taking part in the deliberations, lawmakers argued that income tax in Nepal was higher compared to neighboring countries India and Pakistan. They also drew government’s attention to higher tax on import of e-vehicles, terming it a contradictory move at a time when discussions were on to increase power consumption. Lawmakers Bharat Shah, Metmani Chaudhary, Prakash Snehi, Dibya Mani Rajbhandari, Gajendra Bahadur Mahat, Gokul Banskota and others took part in the deliberation.
Meanwhile, Minister for Finance Sharma said subsidy is given in power tariffs to the mega industries so as to reduce trade deficit. He also said capacity building of the stakeholders was realized for the budget implementation.
Saying that some tax rates have been revised and subsidy is also given, the Finance Minister informed the House that tax rates on nut and pea have been increased to control the smuggling. Likewise, taxes have been raised on health hazardous and luxury goods, according to the minister.
Tax rates on steel and iron goods is not changed by targeting any of the industrial group, Minister Sharma shared. Minister Sharma claimed that the budget was unveiled by keeping the interests of farmers, poor, working class people and entrepreneurs at the center while making his commitment to bring about changes in case some issues were missing.
