Nepal Establishes Tax Consultation Centre to Address Tax Concerns

In a bid to ease Nepal’s business community’ tax-related concerns, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) opened a ‘Tax Consultation Center’ (TTC) in Teku.

FNCCI President Bhawani Rana and Revenue Secretary Shishir Kumar Dhungana inaugurated the center on November 20, 2018. This unit will receive & address the business community’s tax-related complaints.

In case of inability to solve issues on its own, TTC will forward them to related government agencies including Inland Revenue Department and Nepal Finance Ministry.

“The unit will address complaints on its own or will forward them to the government agencies. This is our effort to make tax administration more practical, effective and friendly,” read FNCCI’s press statement post TTC’s inauguration.

Additionally, the center will offer all its services at ‘no cost’ and will have a lead legal advisor, charter accountants and other staff.

FNCCI Officiating Director General Gopal Prasad Tiwari informed that the government will soon recruit a tax officer for settling tax-related concerns.

“The unit is of great significance considering the worsening doing business environment on the country,” added Tiwari.

According to the World Bank’s Doing Business Report for 2019, Nepal slipped five points down to the 110^th rank compared to last year. Nepal’s time-consuming tax filing process was attributed to the low rank.

“There is a pressing need to ease the process of filing taxes,” said Rana at the inauguration ceremony while adding that the tax-process should be business friendly.

FNCCI Senior President Shekhar Golchha added that the Nepal business community has been suffering at the hands of contradictory legal provisions on tax matters.