The Public Accounts Committee of Legislature Parliament on Thursday directed the Ministry of Finance to immediately recover the due capital gains tax from private sector telecommunications service provider Ncell.

A meeting of the House panel held on Thursday directed the Ministry of Finance to promptly collect the remaining tax on the Ncell buyout deal and inform the committee, Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker and House committee member Ram Hari Khatiwada informed.

So far, the company has deposited Rs23.6 billion in total in capital gains made from the Ncell buyout deal.

Speaking at the PAC meeting today, 12 lawmakers drew the attention of government towards the delay in recovering the tax and demanded the concerned body come up a reply.

In May last year, the company had paid Rs9.97 billion as 15 percent withholding tax. It had filed the tax return based on its own calculations.

Following pressure and criticisms from a cross section of society, Ncell had deposited an additional Rs13.6 billion as part of the tax applicable on the profit generated through sale of the telecom company.

Considering the revised tax estimate, the total capital gains tax on the Ncell buyout deal stands at Rs39.3 billion. This means the government still needs to recover Rs15.7 billion from the deal.