Double Taxation Dispute: Traders resume supply of agri products
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DHANKUTA, AUG 05 -
Traders of eastern Nepal on Saturday decided to resume supplying agriculture goods to hilly areas of the region after an agreement among all stakeholders to resolve a issue of “double taxation”.
The traders had stopped supply of agriculture products in the eastern hilly districts for the last one week in protest against the ‘double taxation’ charged by the contractor assigned by District Development Committee (DDC) Sunsari.
A two-day-long stakeholder meeting, under the coordination of the Regional Administrator Office, concluded on positive note with a promise to remove “double taxation” and to reduce tax rate.
The traders were enraged after DDC, Sunsari, charged “export tax” even on the goods transported from other districts on which they had already paid such tax in the district of origin. They were charging that they had to pay additional tax on the good transported even from Jhapa, Morang and other districts.
The DDC assigned contractors were imposing tax on agriculture goods being transported to eastern hilly districts by putting barrage in Bhedetar of Dhankuta.
As per the Local Self-Governance Act, the DDC can impose ‘export tax’ on locally produced agriculture good that are transported to other districts. “The dispute has been settled now, with the agreement to not impose double taxes,” said regional administrator Krishna Chandra Poudel.
“When the contractor forcefully collected taxes for the agricultural goods supplied from Jhapa, Morang and other places to the districts, the traders protested against such acts,” said Lalchandra Gongba, president of Dhankuta Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Despite shortage of the agriculture goods in the hilly areas, Gongba blamed the local administration of keeping mum on the issue, alleging them of forcefully imposing an additional tax on some transported goods.
It has led to severe shortage of such goods in the districts like Dhankuta, Bhojpur, Sankhuwasabha and Tehrathum. The goods like vegetables, oil, rice, wheat, egg, honey are charged with an additional tax ranging from Rs 5-Rs50 per quintal. Chief District Officer (CDO) of Sunsari Khadgabahadur Chapagain said that the tax should be collected only once while supplying goods produced in Sunsari to other districts.
The traders had also raised the issue with Eastern Region Police Chief Surendra Bahadur Shah. Shah, who had reached Dhankuta on Thursday, said that the concerned authority should take necessary steps to end the double taxation.
Posted on: 2012-08-05 08:43
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