The finance minister had earlier indicated that the plan could be shelved, citing that it could deter the private sector´s confidence. However, he backtracked after he drew criticism from within his own party.
“Under the revived endeavor, we have seized the account books of a highly-probable tax evader on Wednesday, to investigate his property details and sources of income,” said Shanta Bahadur Shrestha, director general of IRD.
He asked myrepublica.com not to disclose the party´s name, given the sensitivity of the case, and elaborated that the investigation was in the final stage in another half a dozen cases of revenue dodging.
Officials at the Investigation Cell of the department authorized to swoop down on people who refuse to comply with the tax laws state that they have expedited the probing into 400 potential tax evaders.
The people shortlisted for scrutiny include those who were earlier asked by the department to use benefits the VDIS scheme provided but who did not comply with it. “The cell will swoop down on three other high-probable revenue dodgers soon,” stated the source.
As for the person whose property and financial details have been taken into control by the department, the cell officials said that they would establish his tax liability within a week and ask him to either prove that he has complied with the tax provisions or pay the tax and the fine within 15 days.
This final chance to prove his innocence is being given as per the Post-VDIS Action Manual that the former government led by the UCPN-Maoist had approved. If the person fails to prove his innocence, IRD will slap the tax on him and the fine, worth 60 percent of the property.
In order to start taking action against tax evaders, the IRD had sent letters to some 900 firms and individuals whom it tagged as probable tax evaders, seeking property details and tax-payment records from them two months ago. However, the changes in IRD´s leadership and the poor coordination in the department hobbled the investigation process, slowing down the IRD´s ability to take action.
The program further faced a setback after the change in government raised confusion over who in the new government owned the post-VDIS process. "All these factors culminated in the government´s not taking action against the guilty. If things had not changed, we would have already taken action for the investigations we started back then," said an official.
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