The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has continued to fall behind in collecting revenue, according to figures for the first four months of the current FY24-25 made available on Wednesday.
The revenue collection saw a shortfall of Tk 30,767 crore at the end of October while the target was to earn Tk 132,112 crore.
In July-October, none of the targets were met in import duty, VAT and income tax.
The biggest deficit has been in the income tax sector. The deficit in this sector was Tk 12,739 crore during July-August period.
Although the target of collecting Tk 45,242 crore in the income tax sector, Tk 32,489 crore has come to the national exchequer.
In the stipulated four months, the collection in the import duty was Tk 32,718 crore against the target of Tk 39,630 crore. The shortfall in this sector is about Tk 6,912 crores.
Last July-October deficit in VAT sector was Tk 11,102 crore. The collection from the sector was Tk 36,137 crore, but the target of realisation in this sector was Tk 47, 239 crore.
Although the revenue collection of the NBR is increasing gradually, its officials are highly hopeful to cover it in the coming months of the fiscal saying that due to the July-August revolution the revenue sector faced a hiccup like the trade and business in the country.
While talking to UNB, some senior NBR officials said that naturally the revenue collection slows down in the first couple of months of every fiscal year.
“But this time the collection showed significant shortfall due to the anti-discrimination movement by the student from first week of the July that led to the changing of the government through massive bloodshed,” according to one official who wished anonymity as he is not authorised to talk to the media.
Throughout the month of last July and till the first week of August, the student movement took place across the country affecting normal life.
There was curfew for several days in addition to general holidays. These have had an impact on the collection of customs duties and taxes.
Again, there was uncertainty in the business sector even after the change of government in the first week of August, he said.
“Due to these reasons, the customs and tax officials said that they could not collect the desired revenue,” said another official.
This year NBR has a target to collect a revenue of Tk 4,80,000 crore.
NBR officials feel that the pace of tax collection will pick up towards the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh is in a $4.7-billion loan programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The revenue sector is not exempted from this condition. The two major conditions are additional revenue collection of 1.5 percent of GDP every year and removal of all tax exemptions by 2027. A strategy to increase revenue collection should be decided by next December.
