December 13: The private sector has pointed out that there is a need for extensive reforms in the tax system to bail out the economy from the current crisis and move towards sustainable development and prosperity. Representatives of the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry made such suggestions to the High Level Taxation Reform Commission. 

Although the government says that the economic indicators have improved, the private sector says that the government's 'unreasonable tax system' is responsible for the industries operating in a quarter of their full capacity.

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic brought the problems of the economy to the surface, the unreasonable tax system has been responsible for this situation since a long time. 

The chamber has demanded that the limit of income tax exemption should be revised as it is not up to date. Anil Kumar Agarwal, president of the association, says that keeping in mind the changes in the lifestyle of common people, the limit of personal and family income tax exemption should be increased. He said, "Our suggestion is that there should be income tax exemption on income up to 800,000 for a single person and 1 million for a couple."

Senior Vice President of the chamber Hari Gautam complained that the industrialists did not get the income tax exemption given to the industries.

Another vice president, Madhav Rajpal, said that if the industries invest the accumulated profit to increase the production of the industry, the tax on dividend should be exempted. Rajpal argues that a lump sum annual tax should be imposed on those who do business up to Rs 50 million a year. 

Rajpal said that the provision of business loss deduction should be made practical for income tax purposes. The process of collecting income tax by adding interest even on the uncollected amount is not fair. The provision of waiving expenses under social responsibility should also be made practical, he said.