KATHMANDU, July 21: Gen-Z activists Rakshya Bam, Yujan Rajbhandari and Arnav Chaudhary have expressed dissatisfaction with the government's decision to impose taxes on services related to basic needs, including education and healthcare.
Taking to social media, the activists questioned the government's tax policy and urged it to reconsider the decision to levy taxes on essential services.
Gen-Z activist Rakshya Bam expressed outrage, saying citizens are being burdened with taxes "from education and healthcare to Aryaghat." She urged the government to repeal the taxes, warning that public frustration could grow if the issue is ignored.
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In a social media post, Bam wrote: "Tax on education, tax on healthcare, tax on breathing air, taxes after you die until you reach Aryaghat. Do citizens have to pay taxes on every basic need for survival, government?"
Bam said she had paid all the service fees required by the state but could no longer bear taxes on basic necessities. She urged the government to immediately review its tax policy.
Similarly, Gen-Z activist Yujan Rajbhandari also questioned the government's tax policy, saying it was unreasonable to increase taxes on services directly linked to people's basic needs and survival.
Meanwhile, social activist Arnav Chaudhary also criticized the government's decision to raise taxes in the healthcare sector. He argued that increasing the tax burden on citizens would not, by itself, contribute to the country's development.
In a social media post, he wrote: "What kind of policy is it to develop the country by increasing the tax burden on healthcare for people who are already paying for treatment by selling their homes and land, exhausting their life savings, and taking out loans?"
Chaudhary argued that the government appears to assume that everyone seeking treatment at private hospitals is wealthy, whereas many people are forced to sell property or borrow money to afford medical care.
He further said that, as Nepal follows the principles of a welfare state, imposing higher taxes on basic services such as education, healthcare, nutrition and housing is inappropriate.
Arguing that the government should adopt policies that provide greater concessions and improve access to quality healthcare for financially vulnerable citizens, Chaudhary also called for basic services such as healthcare and education to be provided free of charge.
