Speaking in the meeting of the Legislature-Parliament, Public Account Committee (PAC) today, PM Dahal said, “Ncell should pay the tax that it needs to pay to the State. There would be no concession under any condition, it should not be given. But the matter why the seller was allowed to leave without paying the tax would be investigates and action will be taken against the guilty.”

Telia Sonera, the then promoter of the Ncell, has not paid the capital gains tax in lieu of the sale while handing over the ownership to the Malaysian company Exiata. It is stated that Ncell which was sold at 144 billion needs to pay Rs 43 billion in capital gains tax alone. But it has been dilly-dallying so far in paying the tax.

The Prime Minister declared that the government was committed to realise the tax from the tax defaulter by adopting every measure and it would make the defaulter pay the tax as soon as possible.

Referring to the public criticism that the government was becoming lenient in realising the capital gains tax from Ncell, PM said wrong and negative comments were made on the topic that was discussed in general in the meeting of the Council of Ministers.

He said all the measures that should be adopted on behalf the government would be taken for settling the issue of Ncell’s capital gains tax even to have a positive impact on the matter of foreign direct investment.

Prime Minister Dahal also expressed his commitment that the directives given by the parliamentary committee would be fully implemented.

Making it clear that the government has prodded the concerned ministry, the Ministry of Finance, regarding what had happened and why the issue of paying tax was being delayed, PM Dahal said, “The concerned side should pay the tax that it needs to pay to the State. There would not be any type of leniency in this. The government’s clear view is why it (Ncell) was let off the hook in the past without making it to pay the tax. We are clear on this topic.”

He informed the committee that the matter of why there was delay in realising the tax was only discussed in passing during conversation in the meeting of the Council of Ministers. The PM candidly stated that there was no any problem in realising the tax if the State only took active initiation towards that end.

However, Ncell’s then promoter Telia Sonera has been publicly expressing that it was not paying the capital gains tax as it was not its responsibility to pay tax in Nepal. It has cited that since Nepal and Norway have signed an agreement on tax concession, it was not its responsibility to pay the capital gains tax.

The Prime Minister explicitly mentioned that the Ncell should pay tax as per the Income Tax Act, 2058 BS and that the bodies under the Ministry of Finance were making the necessary initiatives to that end. He made it clear that an environment for realising the tax would be created even by bringing the buyer and seller to one place.

But the PM stated in the committee meeting that the Malaysian government-owned company Exiata had written to the government mentioning that they were facing problem. He added that the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister contradicted on this issue was also not true. “There is only the government’s positive concern in this and that is all,” he said.

‘Act as per Income Tax Act’

Lawmakers stressed on realising the capital gains tax as per the Income Tax Act 2058 BS. Speaking in the meeting NC lawmaker Ramhari Khatiwada raised the query that why the income tax was not collected from the company as paying income tax was the liability of the respective company.

He added that why the government remained silent while such a big company left Nepal without paying tax.

Similarly, NC lawmaker Dhanraj Gurung said that the action should be taken to the officials involved in permitting the company without collecting the tax.

Similarly, lawmakers Bharat Shah, Amrit Lal Rajbanshi, Bikas Lamsal, Hari Charan Sah, Bhaskar Bhadra, Ananda Pokharel and Sarbendra Nath Shukla said that the issue of collecting tax from the Ncell should be resolved soon as it was a shameful event for discussing on the same issues frequently.

The committee has directed the government and Ministry of Finance to collect the tax soon and inform the committee after completing the process.

The committee President Dor Prasad Upadhyay shared that they decided to write a letter to the CIAA to probe into the case.

Earlier, the Finance Committee had also issued a letter to the government in this connection. RSS