The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has taken action against 615 businesses for tax evasion as it intensifies market monitoring to prevent noncompliance.

Inspections were expanded since September 12 due to the occurrence of a series of festivals like Dashain, Tihar and Chhath when business transactions swell tremendously, the department said. Each of the 36 offices under the IRD has formed three teams to monitor the market.

“Although market monitoring is a regular job of the department, we have intensified checking during the festive season after receiving complaints about fraud,” said the IRD in a press statement. “We will give continuity to the monitoring effort even after the festive season.”

Till date, the IRD’s inspection teams have checked 3,905 taxpayers and taken action against 615. It has also collected Rs3.84 million in fines. The department is investigating 21 firms and has confiscated their purchase and sales accounts.

A majority of the businesses which were fined were found not issuing sales receipts to their customers or selling goods not stamped with excise duty stickers.

The inspection teams also confiscated gutkha and liquor which did not have excise duty stickers on them. Similarly, tax officials seized alcohol from liquor shops operating without a permit.  “We also found many stores using duplicate excise duty stickers, selling bootleg liquor or doing business without maintaining account books in a bid to evade tax,” the IRD said. “We even informed many business owners about Nepal’s tax laws during the inspection.”

The department has urged businesses to maintain a book of accounts and issue sales receipts to customers. It has warned them that stern action will be taken if they fail to so so.

The IRD started market monitoring in September after a team led by Minister for Supplies Shiva Kumar Mandal sealed several branded showrooms on Durbar Marg on the charge of putting an excessive markup.

The ministry drew the attention of the IRD to investigate such stores on suspicion of their involvement in under-invoicing to evade customs duty. 

The four outlets which were sealed during the raid had failed to produce proper paperwork. The monitoring team discovered that the price tags on the products were nine to 23 times higher than the cost price.

As per the Black Marketing and Some Other Social Offences and Punishment Act 1975, sellers are allowed a markup of up to 20 percent on the cost price.