Taxed to death

Last week in this very space we wrote about how back in early 2000s the Maoists were imposing on trekkers a ‹revolutionary tax›, and how this actually became a tourist attraction.

Around the same time in Surkhet, as this story also shows, they were also forcing local businesses to pay a fee for Maoist ‘visas’ for travel.

Excerpts of the report published 20 years ago this week on issue #221 12-18 November 2004:

One morning earlier this month, businessmen in Surkhet were all heading out of town towards Baddichaur. They were trying to beat the Maoist deadline to register with them and fill out tax forms.

In Home Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka’s hometown, traders now pay two taxes: one to the government and the other to the Maoists. Thirty km outside town in Baddichaur (which the rebels have renamed ‘Himal Municipality’) is the Maoist contact office for surkhet businessmen to pay their revolutionary tax, for people who need Maoist ‘visas’ to travel to Jumla, Kalikot, Achham and Dailekh. Those travelling without visas have to face interrogations and are sent to labour camps to dig tunnels.

When the rebels began registering businesses in the district on 17 September, businessmen gathered at Baddichaur. The rebels had issued a notice saying no one was allowed to run a business without registering with the ‘new regime’. As a result, 1,100 businessmen in Surkhet have registered, whereas only 300 businesses have been registered with the Surkhet Association of Industry and Commerce.

Tax collection is more efficient than the government’s revenue department. It is amazing what the fear of the gun can do.

Businessmen are supposed to pay their Maoist tax by the fifth of every Nepali month. There is a flat rate of Rs100 a month for every business with a monthly turnover of Rs100,000.

For archived material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: nepalitimes.com