Kathmandu, June 19: The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has collected Rs 32.2 billion in infrastructure tax for the construction of 1,200-megawatt hydropower project, although no decision has been made about which modality it would be made.
The amount was collected as of 31 May this year. NOC has been levying infrastructure tax Rs 5 per liter on petroleum products at the customs point. It’s been three years since the state-owned petroleum products supplier has been taxing on the petroleum products entering Nepal from India to contribute to internal resources for the construction of national pride projects with domestic funding.
NOC Officiating Deputy Executive Director Nagendra Shah shared that earlier the NOC had levied a tax on petroleum products to collect money in the name of Budhi-Gandaki hydropower project and later changed the name as infrastructure tax. The collected tax has been deposited in the state’s coffee since the beginning.
In the meeting of parliamentary Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday (June 18), Minister for Energy, Hydropower and Irrigation Barshaman Pun said that decision would be made soon on Budhi Gandaki hydropower project. Government, in its announcement for a new fiscal year, has said that the construction of this power project would begin with the new fiscal year 2019/20. According to the DPR prepared by the French company Tractebel in 2015/16, the construction cost of this mega hydropower project was Rs 259 billion, which could go higher given the hike in the price of construction materials and increase in the exchange rate of US dollars.
