June 21: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has written to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) demanding that the latter provides house rent taxes collected to the metropolis.    
The KMC argued that the responsibility of collecting house rent taxes fall within the jurisdiction of the metropolis as per the provisions of the constitution and law. According to the KMC, the department is collecting institutional house rent taxes instead of the metropolis. A letter written by the KMC Mayor Balendra Shah to the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission states that the department should return the taxes it collected to the metropolis. "The metropolis is only collecting private house rent taxes," he said.    
Stating that the metropolis has had to bear a loss of Rs 1.43 billion because the IRD has been collecting the institutional house rent taxes, the KMC mayor also requested the commission to compensate for the loss.    
"I make a humble request to the respected commission to take required initiatives for the department to return the house rent taxes collected so far to the metropolis and ensure the jurisdiction of the local level to collect house rent taxes. This interference by the department is not acceptable to the metropolis," reads the letter. -- RSS