The Bir Hospital has made it clear that it had been submitting the house-rent tax to the Inland Revenue Office. The Hospital said it in response to the public notice the Kathmandu Metropolitan City issued which stated that the Bir Hospital failed to pay tax on time.The Bir Hospital also asked the KMC why it did not collect information from the respective offices before issuing the public notice, according to information officer at Hospital, Sagar Mishra. “The Bir Hospital has been paying tax at the Inland Office even before the Local Government Operation Act. As no information was relayed by KMC on whether it changed the tax rate, it was paying the tax at the earlier tax rate.

Some 2,500 patients visit Bir Hospital for treatment on a daily basis. The employees are busy on managing the patients’ influx, Mishra added. It may be because of the confusion surrounding the change in tax rate. Even the pharmacies are run in the Bir Hospital premises since 2015, said a pharmacy owner Nawaraj Khanal. He further informed that as the KMC issued a public notice, they informed the Bir Hospital to this regard.

Meanwhile, the visitors at this hospital have complained growing mismanagement. Aite Tamang, hailing from Nuwakot, shared that the ticketing counter, laboratory and OPD services were quite messy. Similarly, the attendants to the patients said even the water pipes and taps are broken and there are no functioning taps.The Information Officer however admits that it was natural to have hustle and bustle in the health facility where some 6,000 people come and go by on a regular basis.