January 27: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has removed 9,000 hoarding boards in three months. KMC said that it removed such boards that were placed violating the rules.    
The local government has mobilised a four-member team that visits the city each day, assesses the hoarding boards installed in violation of the rules and removes them. The campaign aims to maintain the beauty of the metropolis.    
According to the chief of the Revenue Department  of KMC Dr Shiba Raj Adhikari, the campaign to pullout hoarding boards placed against the rules was mainly centered in New Baneshwar, Koteshwar, Putali Sadak, Bagbazar and Maharajgunj areas.    
The local government on September 23 last year fixed the standards for placement of hoarding boards and charge for them. Issuing a 30-day public notice, it urged bodies concerned to follow the standards.    
As per the Economic Act-2079 BS, the Metropolis annually charges Rs 500 for a hoarding board up to six square feet, Rs 1,500 for up to 15 square feet and Rs 1,000 per foot for a hoarding board from 15-30 square feet.    
The local government collects revenue under 36 headings including property tax, house rent tax, enterprise tax, advertisement tax and entertainment tax.    
The metropolis in the current fiscal year has set a target of collecting the revenue of Rs 550 million. As of mid-January, the revenue collection of KMC stands at Rs 314.02 million.    
It is said the collection of entertainment tax which was challenging for a long has been possible lately due to the frequent efforts of the local government. -- RSS