Money
KMC raises advt tax four times of target
Despite performing below par on development expenditure and revenue collection for the current fiscal year, Kathmandu Metropolitan City has raised advertisement tax nearly four times of target.Despite performing below par on development expenditure and revenue collection for the current fiscal year, Kathmandu Metropolitan City has raised advertisement tax nearly four times of target.
According to chief of Revenue Division at KMC Dhurba Kafle, the metropolis collected Rs19 million in advertisement tax till the second quarter of the current fiscal year ending in mid-March.
The KMC, which collected Rs1.6 million under this heading, had a target of raising Rs5 million by the end of this fiscal.
Kafle attributed the rise in advertisement revenue to KMC’s recent drive in bringing hoarding boards under its tax net.
“Most of the advertisement boards spread across Kathmandu were illegal. When we started removing them, companies came forward to register them and pay taxes due on them,” Kafle explained.
The KMC rules prohibit display of advertisement boards at public places.
While they are allowed at private land and houses, such boards should be displayed 10 feet away from the road and within 30-feet height.
The KMC’s performance in other areas during the period was poor though.
The earthquake followed by widespread shortages of daily essentials created a situation where development and economic activities were hit hard.
Consequently, the second quadrimester of the fiscal year 2015/16—between mid-November and mid-March—failed to yield expected results.
The metropolis has spent only Rs640 million for infrastructure improvement and other development expenditure in the current fiscal year out of the allocated budget of Rs2.88 billion.
Of the total annual budget of Rs4.06 billion, only Rs940 million has been spent so far due largely to slow pace of reconstruction and development of projects.
Destruction of thousands of houses and a fall in building construction following the earthquake in the metropolitan area hit KMC’s tax revenue as house and land taxes constitute 72 percent of its revenue source.
The metropolis had set a target of Rs 195 million in revenue collection from its internal sources in the second quadrimester but could only achieve 76 percent of the target or Rs148 million.