The Inland Revenue Office, Bharatpur has directed Gorkha Brewery to pay the excise duty determined by the tax office within a week. The revenue office has asked the Gorkha Brewery, a leading beverage company, to pay Rs 871.4 million in excise duty that it failed to pay in the past two fiscal years.

A single bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Sumsher Rana, on July 24, overturned an interim order issued by the Pokhara High Court, paving the way for the collection of taxes owed by the brewery to the government. Earlier on June 26, the High Court had issued an interim order directing the Bharatpur Inland Revenue Office not to implement its decision to determine the tax liability of the brewery.

Chief at the Bharatpur Inland Revenue Office, Shambhu Prasad Rijal, said his office had dispatched a letter to Gorkha Brewery on July 28, asking it to deposit Rs532,157,615 and Rs339,339,963, inclusive of excise duty, fines and late fees, for fiscal years 2016/17 and 2017/18.

Earlier on June 2, Gorkha Brewery had lodged a writ petition at the Pokhara High Court against the Bharatpur Inland Revenue Office, expressing dissatisfaction over the tax determined by the tax authority.

Responding to the writ, a single bench of Pokhara High Court Judge Ram Chandra Yadav on June 26 first issued an interim order in the case, which was endorsed by the division bench of Judges Jiwan Hari Adhikari and Nara Bahadur Shahi.

The Bharatpur tax office then moved the Supreme Court against the Pokhara High Court’s order on July 23, claiming that the Patan High Court should be hearing the case against the office instead of the Pokhara court.

Rijal further said that the company could still request the director general of Inland Revenue Department to review the tax determined by Bharatpur Office if it was still unsatisfied.