Saleways slapped Rs 114 million in VAT fine

Saleways slapped Rs 114 million in VAT fine
myrepublica, 9-Sep-09
MILAN MANI SHARMA

Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has slapped value added tax (VAT) and penalty of Rs 114 million to Saleways Departmental Store after its investigation proved the store of evading tax in a large scale.

The company had not issued VAT bill and had not paid VAT even after collecting the tax from the customers, a source told myrepublica.com. "The evasion amount actually stood at Rs 57 million. The overall figure touched Rs 114 million due to fine and penalty," he stated.

This has made Saleways the largest ever case of VAT evasion unearthed by the department so far.

The department had initiated investigation against the departmental store after executing a smooth raid on the basis of information provided by an insider two months ago. It had seized its books of accounts, computers and other documents.

The investigation had started with Saleways sales store in Kathmandu. But when the investigating officers dug out its exclusively hidden procurement and sales records, they had extended the investigation to the store´s main outlet in Pokhara as well.

"We managed to conduct the first ever comprehensive study on how the trader manipulated his book of accounts and electronic entries to evade the taxes," said a source.

However, despite repeated calls from the IRD, the promoter of Saleways did not show up at the department to collect the penalty notice and the letter on Tuesday. "We will wait till 2 pm on Wednesday. If he still did not turn up, we will personally deliver the letter to the store at around 3 pm," said the source.

Sudhir Pradhananga of Saleways, meanwhile, said that he has not received any letter or notification from IRD so far. "We will decide on our future action once we get the letter," he stated.