Catch the big fish

The trade in fake VAT bills is to Nepal's revenue sector what a tick is to a dog's ears.

News about business firms trading in fake value added tax (VAT) bills has been so recurrent in the last few years that journalists and editors often ask themselves what exactly is newsworthy about it. And yet, one has to follow the paper trail doggedly. In its recent update, the Department of Revenue Investigation has implicated around 200 firms in the illegal sale of fake VAT bills, worth around Rs15 billion, to around 1,100 firms. What's more, the racketeers who sold the phoney papers are said to have registered their firms in the name of poor and illiterate villagers so as to indemnify themselves against any liability in the event of a crackdown.