Authority inquiry into Manipal's tax exemption

Jagdishchandra Sivakoti, the spokesperson of the Authority Pokhara Office, said that they have started the investigation with all the documents in this regard. "We have taken control of all the documents that were used when the revenue exemption was given to Manipal Hospital," he said, "We will conduct a detailed investigation in this regard." The hospital has 32 acres of its own land, while 192 acres are leased from the Ministry of Defense for 49 years. Long Manipal, which did not get the building completion certificate even till the time of

, finally got the certificate after getting a huge discount in revenue. The Auditor General's report 2076/77 stated that Manipal should pay 21.57 million 11 thousand 798 rupees to the metropolis along with penalty for passing the map. But the 16th executive meeting held on Chait 10, 2079 decided to give a huge discount in revenue. The metropolis charged only 1 crore 75 lakh 53 thousand rupees and gave the map pass and building completion certificate. In this way, the revenue to be exempted will be 19 crore 81 lakh 11 thousand rupees.

The Auditor General's report 2079/80, which was published recently, has instructed Manipal Hospital to collect the revenue as per the rules. It is mentioned in the report that since the basis and reason for giving revenue discount is not mentioned, the recovery should be done. Executive members have said that tax exemption to Manipal is not on the agenda in the 16th meeting. Radhika Shahi Yogi, executive member and president of Ward 17, recalled that the issue of tax exemption to Manipal was not in the proposal of the meeting. "We were misled by keeping a decision book on matters that were not discussed in the meeting," she said. The same may have happened in the case of Manipal.'

After all-round criticism of the issue of giving tax exemption to Manipal, Metropolitan Chief Dhanraj Acharya has informed that decision number 8 of the 16th executive meeting has been revoked. He said that a committee has been formed under the coordination of Chief Administrative Officer Syamakrishna Thapa to prepare an opinion on this matter. The Manipal Teaching Hospital administration has issued a press release on Thursday expressing disagreement with the Auditor General's report. The statement said, "When the municipality ignored repeated demands for map approval, the revenue of crores of rupees was wasted." We seek justice in this regard.'