Though Maoists are pressurizing the government to immediately promulgate the interim constitution to pave the way for them to join the interim government, they have been continuing collection of taxes and excesses.

Maoists have been collecting taxes in construction materials supply, rural roads and other internal resources of the Kaski District Development Committee (DDC) in over a dozen places of the district for the past five months, reports The Himalayan Times daily.

Although Kaski DDC had hired contractors in mid-July to collect taxes in those places, the Maoists have been collecting the taxes themselves, depriving the contractors from tax collection.

The paper quoted Local Development Officer Narhari Baral as saying that tax collection from the internal resources by the DDC has been halted completely after the Maoists took over tax collection.

“The Maoists are using their own receipt to collect taxes from 12 places of Kaski,” Baral said.

Kaski DDC had been collecting taxes from district’s internal resources in altogether 17 places of Pokhara and other nearby villages. The DDC is now collecting taxes from the remaining five places only.

Contractors, who had given Rs 9.1 million to Kaski DDC in advance, have threatened to padlock DDC if their money was not reimbursed.

The Maoists’ Kaski district leader Bishnu Poudel said they were compelled to collect tax after DDC continued construction works without prior agreement with them.

He said the money collected as tax would be spent on repair of rural roads and other development works.