Accountant General’s emphasis on social media registration

KATHMANDU: AUGUST 22 – The Office of the Auditor General has said that there should be an arrangement for the registration of social networks including Facebook. Recently, the 58th Annual Report of the Public Auditor General states that arrangements should be made to register the network and bring online advertisement under the tax net.

Under the heading ‘Policy and Legal Reforms’ of the report, point 40 states that there should be a provision for registration of social media for revenue collection as the source of payment for activities conducted in Nepal is in Nepal. “Article 67 (6) of the Income Tax Act, 2058 provides that a person conducting a business transmitting information through media such as wire, radio optical fibres or satellite shall be deemed to be a source of payment in Nepal by transmitting news or information from a mechanism established in Nepal,” the report said.

The report emphasizes the need to bring online advertising under the tax net, saying that telephone service providers like Viber, Messenger, Skype, WhatsApp, WeChat, Imo, Zoom, WaveX, Cisco are running applications and payments for these services have not been registered even from Nepal.

The bill on information technology brought by the government some time ago has also provided for the registration of social media. The Office of the Auditor General has also pointed out the need for policy and legal reforms to register the social networks providing services in Nepal.