Parliamentarians express concern over SC’s ruling on Ncell tax assessment

Kathmandu / August 30: Members of the Parliamentary Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights have expressed its concerns over the Supreme Court’s decision on Ncell tax assessment.

In a meeting of the committee on Friday, the members said that the parliament should study the court verdict minutely. They also claimed that a recent ruling of the Apex Court seemed to have been contradictory to its earlier orders as well as the instructions made by the committee.

Sanjay Kumar Gautam, speaking in the meeting, said that he is surprised by the court’s verdict against the decision by the concerned authority under the Government of Nepal which has been purely assigned to impose the tax.

Another lawmaker Dev Prasad Gurung argued whether the decision would set a wrong precedent. He also enquired how the committee could hold discussions on the verdict of the court.

Answering the questions by the members of the committee, Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, the Chairman of the parliamentary panel said discussions over the court verdicts would make judiciary stronger.

However, there is a legal provision that no parliamentary committee meeting can hold discussions on verdicts by the apex court.

The Supreme Court on August 27 invalidated the assessment of the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to be paid by telecommunication company Ncell Pvt Ltd.

The Large Taxpayers Office (LTO) had determined on April 16 that the company had to pay Rs 39 billion as CGT including accrued interest and fines. A five-member larger full bench of Justices Tej Bahadur KC, Purusottam Bhandari, Dambar Bahadur Shahi, Sushmalata Mathema and Manoj Kumar Sharma issued the certiorari order invalidating the tax assessment made by LTO in pursuance of a previous order of the Supreme Court issued on February 7.