Growth in Imports Backs Revenue Collection in FY’17

July 19, 2017

The Government of Nepal exceeded its revenue collection target of the 2016-17 fiscal, supported by an exponential rise in imports and the tax paid by a telecom service provider, NCell, on its capital gains.

Exceeding its actual target of Rs 565.69 billion, the government bagged an additional sum of Rs 45.87 billion and collected Rs 611.76 billion in total, thus recording a 26.93 percent year-on-year rise.

The additional revenue is attributed to the income tax and customs tariff collections, which surpassed targets because of the tax payment by NCell and substantial rise in imports.

According to the Customs department, imports into the country in the 2016-17 fiscal surged by 31 percent over the previous fiscal.

The registration tax collections also witnessed a rise due to increase in land and housing transactions in the country.

Other than the Value Added Tax (VAT) and health & education service tax, all the other tax sections exceeded their fiscal targets.

However, VAT is the major tax earner that accounted for 26.33 percent of the overall revenue share, followed by income tax (24.74 percent), customs tariff (18.34 percent), and excise (12.18 percent).