KATHMANDU: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has written to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) demanding that the latter provides house rent taxes collected to the metropolis.

It is within the jurisdiction of the metropolis to collect house rent taxes within it as provisioned by the Constitution and law, and the Department is collecting institutional house rent taxes.

The Department should return the taxes collected to the metropolis, according to a letter written by the metropolis mayor Balendra Shah to the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission. “The metropolis is only collecting private house rent taxes,” he said.

Stating that the metropolis has to bear a loss of Rs 1.43 billion in the course of collecting institutional house rent taxes by the Department, the Kathmandu Mayor also requested the Commission to compensate for the loss.

“I make a humble request to the respected Commission to take required initiatives for the Department to return the house rent taxes collected so far to the metropolis and ensure the jurisdiction of the local level to collect house rent taxes. This interference by the Department is not acceptable to the metropolis,” reads the letter.