With the country's revenue administration falling far behind to meet the revenue collection target in the current fiscal year, the new leadership at the Ministry of Finance has started to get into action. The Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee (CRLCC) on Wednesday directed the bodies concerned to put maximum efforts to control revenue leakages. Official statistics show overall revenue collection has a stark shortfall of Rs 138 billion of the target in the first five months of the current fiscal year. The government in the federal budget targeted to raise Rs 1,403 billion in revenue for the fiscal year. However, after the first five months, only less than a quarter of the annual target (about 23 percent) has been collected. Similarly, the government had set a target of collecting Rs 464 billion in revenue from mid-July to mid-December this year. But the FCGO data shows a total of Rs 326 billion in revenue has been collected by mid-December. Given the current state of the revenue collection, it is likely that it will be difficult for the government to meet its recurrent and development expenditure targets. Wednesday's meeting, therefore, was a crucial one. The CRLCC meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel and Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane. The ministers took stock of the present condition of revenue collection and the measures taken to check revenue leakages.

Minister Poudel asked all the bodies to put maximum effort to control all types of revenue leakage. Minister Poudel assured that the government is ready to provide all types of support required to control revenue leakage.

Similarly, minister Lamichhane said the home administration would actively work to control revenue leakage taking place at the border checkpoints of the country. According to Ananda Kafle, spokesperson of the Finance Ministry, the meeting was held to tackle the challenges seen in revenue collection and possible actions that can be taken to control smuggling. Senior government officials including the Nepal Rastra Bank governor, finance secretary, home secretary, chiefs of security bodies, and the director general of the Inland Revenue Department, among others, were present in the meeting. With the country's imports decreasing by 20.71 percent, the customs revenue has also declined in the first five months of the current fiscal year. The new foreign trade statistics released by the Department of Customs (DoC) on Thursday show the government's custom revenue has shrunk by 29 percent. The department collected revenue worth Rs 154.13 billion in the first five months of FY 2022/23 compared to Rs 217.33 billion in the first five months of FY 2021/22. The customs revenue has been affected due to the import restrictions on four-wheelers and motorcycles above 150 cc as vehicles imported into the country have long been a major revenue source for the government. The government's internal revenue collection has also taken a beating this fiscal year as economic activities in the country go through a sharp slowdown. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) which is responsible for the administration of value-added tax (VAT), income tax, excise duties, health service tax, and education service fees in the country, has missed the revenue collection target in the first five months of the current fiscal year. The department missed the target by 14 percent as it collected revenue worth Rs 150 billion till mid-December against the target of Rs 155 billion. IRD's revenue collection in the first five months of this fiscal is lower than that of the same period of the last fiscal; in FY 2021/22, the department collected Rs 155 billion in revenue in the first five months. Revenue administration officials attribute multiple factors to the decline in the collection of revenues. According to them, import restrictions, and slackness in the financial market, weaker demands in the market have affected economic activities.