Terms of Reference
Introduction
As part of its ambitious Sustainable Development Goals Agenda, Nepal is pursuing the target of achieving a tax-to-GDP rate of 30 percent. Increasing the rate of mobilization is crucial to the extent that Nepal’s achievement of the SDG goals, as envisioned in key documents including the National Implementation Strategy of the 2030 Agenda, Status and Roadmap 2016-2030, hinges on improved compliance. While over a decade tax revenues have increased from 11 per cent of the GDP to 22 per cent of the GDP, issues with compliances persist. In fiscal year 2022/23 47.73 percent of income taxpayers and 37.53 per cent of value-added taxpayers did not submit tax returns—an increase in the rate of non-compliance by 2.76 percentage points and 22.03 percentage points in comparison to a year prior.
Currently the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) is supporting the tax authorities in Nepal through the third iteration of the Revenue Advisory Services (RAS-III). The overarching objective of the project is to strengthen the tax administrative system of Nepal by increasing tax-payers compliance.
The overall objective of the project is to assess the satisfaction among taxpayers regarding various services provided by the Inland Revenue Department. In addition, the project also aims to generate policy insights that can be used by the Inland Revenue Department and the Ministry of Finance to inform any measures to be undertaken to improve satisfaction level amongst service seekers. More particularly, the project also seeks to inform issues with the current tax regime that affects disadvantaged groups in Nepal which includes women.
More specifically the project has the following objectives:
- Conduct a taxpayer satisfaction survey to inform the level of satisfaction amongst taxpayers,
- Identify what has worked and what has not worked to improve service delivery of inland revenue department,
- Based on a segregated sample representing geographic variations and gender assess the level of satisfaction, and
- Understand and provide insights into the major factors that cause non-compliance and recommend steps to be undertaken.
The survey will be carried out in 15 districts across Nepal. The districts have been chosen to represent an adequate picture based on the total economically active population in Nepal and the number of taxpayers within a certain district.
Call for quotations
In order to deliver this project, Samriddhi invites quotations from interested consultants for the following tasks and responsibilities. Interested individuals or consulting agencies are requested to send in detailed quotations including estimated costs, and detailed resumes to:
Either [email protected] via email or hand deliver the quotation to Samriddhi premises at 664, Bhimsengola Marga, Minbhawan Kharibot, Kathmandu, Nepal. Kindly mark the position that is being applied for on the cover of the envelope. The quotations should reach Samriddhi by 23 May, 2025, no later than 5.00 PM Nepal Standard Time. Contract award will be communicated by 25 May, 2025 to the selected candidates.
Position: Research Assistant (3 Positions)
The research assistant will be responsible for the following
- Clean data received from survey,
- Assist research officer and survey expert in analysis of data,
- Thematically code interview and FGD transcrips,
- Assist the research officer and tax expert in the analysis of qualitative data,
- Assist the research officer in conducting literature review
The research assistant should have the following qualifications
- Have a bachelor’s degree in law, economics, development studies or a related discipline,
- Have at least one year of experience in data cleaning, data analysis and qualitative analysis,
- Have sound knowledge of Microsoft office packages and statistical softwares such R and Stata.
Duration: The research assistant will work on this project for a total of 17 man-days.