This festive season, which is the busiest shopping and buying season of the year, is also the best opportunity to promote e-commerce. But in order to promote electronic payment, the government announced five years ago that 10 percent of value added tax (VAT) will be refunded if payment is made by card or electronic means, but this has not been implemented.

The Inland Revenue Department has recently issued a notification again announcing new service areas for VAT refunds. Even if the old plan cannot be implemented, the department has said that it will start from the new area and stop implementing the VAT refund system for electronic payments. 

Consumers have not yet been able to experience the facility of VAT refund when making electronic payments at Bhatbhateni, Worldlink and KFC, which were started during the time of the then Finance Minister Yuvraj Khatiwada. Sougat Pathak of Balaju said that he had been shopping regularly at Bhatbhateni for 10/15 years but had no information about the VAT refund. "Pohor Bhatbhateni himself gave a free shopping voucher of 2,000 rupees, apart from that, I have not yet come to know that the money has been deposited in the bank account after VAT refund," he said, "Is there such a scheme?" 

Bhatbhateni said that since 2007, after discussions with the Revenue Department, the VAT refund plan has been implemented. But this program was not effective, said Panu Paudel, Chief Operating Officer of Bhatbhateni. "As only 10 percent of VAT is refunded, this amount is very small in itself, consumers have not been able to experience VAT refund," he said. We have already integrated the system with the bank. The VAT refund is to be done by the bank, we have no role in it.' 

Paudel commented that on average, there are a lot of purchases of 1,500 to 2,000 rupees per day in Bhatbhateni and for 1,500/2,000 rupees, 10 percent of 200 rupees i.e. 20 rupees will be returned for 13 percent VAT. If the amount can be increased, we have been telling the department to do 50 percent of the VAT. But this is the work of the government, we can only make suggestions,' he said, 'we have implemented a system of 5/10 percent discount on the total purchase when paying by card, app, QR together with banks.

Nepal Bankers Sunil KC, president of the association, also pointed out that the system of refunding 10 percent of VAT in case of electronic payment while purchasing taxable goods and services is not effective. In the 076/77 budget, it was announced that 10 percent of VAT will be automatically deposited into the payer's bank account when making electronic payments. 'It has not been implemented because of the technical issues,' KC said, 'For this, a robust system should be made and the system integrated.' Chief Executive Officer Nileshaman Singh Pradhan says. It has been a long time since VAT registered taxpayers have to issue invoices through the electronic system. Although the department has formulated the electronic invoicing procedure, 074, it has not been made mandatory. 

8 months after the 10 percent VAT refund on electronic payments was announced in the budget statement, the then finance minister Khatiwada inaugurated the system (system) prepared by the revenue department for this purpose in January 076. The director general of the department, Ram Prasad Acharya, said that the system was implemented for two or three years, but then the program was 'broken'. He says that it is going to be revived again. 

'This system has been introduced to promote the digital economy and to convey the message that VAT bill should be collected after purchasing goods and services,' he said, 'but for this, it has been seen that a dynamic system needs to be developed. First, it could not be fully implemented due to problems in system integration. Now we are trying to implement this system in the areas that seem to be a little weaker in VAT collection than the established areas such as Bhavateni and Worldlink.'' , Lodge, Guest House business services provided 10 percent of the amount of VAT paid by the consumer has been (re)implemented.