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Nepal's revenue collection exceeds target despite prolonged blockade

Xinhua, July 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

Despite facing a four-and-half month long blockade in southern border points, the revenue collected by Nepal government exceeded the target in the last fiscal year 2015-16 ending mid-July.

Revenue collection stood at 4.47 U.S. dollar (Rs482 billion) against the government's target of collecting 4.4 billion U.S. dollar (Nepalese rupee Rs475 billion) last fiscal year, according to Finance Ministry of Nepal.

The collected revenue is 21.4 percent of the Himalayan country's gross domestic product (GDP) which is the highest ever, said the Ministry.

The blockade that lasted until February this year had stalled economic activities in the Himalayan country as Nepal's import-driven economy could not handle delivery of goods imported from various countries.

The absence of fuel and raw materials led industries either to close down or operate in very low capacity.

Nepal's Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel expressed his delight for achieving revenue collection target despite facing adverse situation for prolonged period.

At a press meet on Tuesday, Poudel said that revenue collection target was met due to conviction and dedication of Nepal's tax authorities.

He said that measures taken such as recovery of tax dues, exploration of increasing non-tax revenue such as royalty, increasing valuation of imported goods for determination of tariff among others, helped to grow revenue.

When the Finance Ministry presented its Mid-Term Review of last fiscal year's budget in February, the Nepal government had estimated that the country would see the revenue deficit by 417 million U.S. dollar (Nepalese Rupee 45 billion).

However, late surge in imports following the end of blockade in February helped to the government to raise more revenue. Some unplanned sources of revenue such as capital gain tax received from the sale of Nepalese company--Ncell by Swedish-Finnish CompanyTeliaSonera, also helped the Nepal government to collect more revenue helping to meet the target, according to the Finance Ministry. Enditem.