Kathmandu, August 27
Central leaders of the Rastriya Janata Party have ordered mayors and other local representatives elected on RJP ticket to refrain from hiking local tax rates.
Party leaders, who were speaking at a meeting of the RJP’s local representatives, told the mayors to not think about hiking taxes, said RJP General Secretary Manish Suman. Rajbiraj Mayor Sambhu Yadav said that central leaders of the party, including Mahanta Thakur told the representatives that an increment in tax rates would be counter-productive.
According to leaders who participated in the meeting, the representatives defended their action and said none of them have agreed to hike local taxes.
“We have not hiked taxes, but we are under constant pressure from the Federal Affairs and Local Development Ministry Secretary Dinesh Thapaliya to collect more taxes,” Kawilashi Municipality Mayor Kaushal Kishore Yadav told the meeting. “He directed me to raise Rs 30 million in taxes,” Yadav told the leaders.
“I was told that if I do not raise Rs 30 million in taxes, the municipality will be downgraded to a village or merged with another municipality,” he added. Yadva said that despite the pressure, he has not hiked tax rates.
