Wider Social Security

Nepal has taken significant steps to enhance the social security of the people despite the fact that the country’s economic conditions are far from satisfactory. Nepal’s constitution has stipulated scores of political, economic, social, employment and health rights, obliging the state to make institutional efforts to ensure the social security of the people. However, it has been a formidable task for the successive governments to translate the vision of the statute into action due to the weak tax base. For a nation to have a solid social security scheme, the contribution of tax to the national GDP should be comparatively high. But the average tax-to-GDP ratio has been 13.92 per cent in the last 21 years. In 2023, the share of tax to the GDP stood at around 17 per cent.