DRI files tax evasion case against Unity Life officials

The Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) on Wednesday
filed a tax evasion case against the directors and promoters of
Unity Life International (ULI) in District Court, Lalitpur. The
department has sought a penalty of Rs 2.57 billion from them. DRI filed the case as per the Revenue Leakage Control Act that states that fines should be imposed doubleof the amount of the
tax evaded. The amount of the tax evaded by ULI has be
determined at Rs 858.6 million, according to DRI officials.
A joint investigation team of DRI, Nepal Rastra Bank and
Insurance Board concluded that ULI violated the Bank and
Financial Institutions Act, Insurance Act, Securities Act,
Cooperatives Act, Foreign Exchange Act, Revenue Leakage (Control) Act and Consumer Rights Protection Act, among others. Cases can be filed against them under these Acts, according to the report. ULI that ran social security schemes without legal permission had expanded its membership on a flawed binary network marketing model based on pyramid structure. It used to collect Rs 15,000 per member. Due to encouragement from political and other sectors, it expanded the membership base massively within just two years. It also expanded its membership even among Nepali migrant workers abroad. ULI had expanded its membership base aggressively in fiscal year 2009-10, adding more than double new members within 10 months. The DRI investigation found that the membership went up by 219,984 last fiscal alone, while its membership base was just 104,301 until the end of the previous fiscal year. This figure matches with the membership figure provided by ULI to DRI.

Nepal Living Standards Survey III: Common Nepalis’ access to basic facilities rising

• The report says the income of poor Nepalis is increasing at a faster rate than that of the rich. It shows the income of the poorest 20 percent of the population increased almost four times than the last survey

• Nepal Living Standards Survey III:

Nepal has made significant progress in social sectors, mainly education and health, in the last seven years. Also, the income gap between the poor and the rich is shrinking, according to findings of the Nepal Living Standards Survey (NLSS) III whose preliminary report was unveiled by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Monday.The NLSS said common Nepalis’ access to basic facilities has improved in the years. As per the survey, 94.7 percent of the household has access to primary schools within 30 minutes, while 73.8 percent households can reach health centres within half an hour. It says access to other services from banking, market centre, paved road to safe drinking water also improved considerably.