Collection of value added tax (VAT) grew by 17% in FY23 despite multiple challenges on both external and domestic fronts.
The revenue board missed a substantial amount of VAT against some projects, desperate drives by the VAT wing of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) facilitated the collection, according to a statement issued on Thursday.
It said the manufacturing industries too faced a blow in spite of opening letters of credit (LCs) and importing raw materials due to the increase in utility bills that hampered the natural pace of the manufacturing sector.
The VAT wing collected Tk125,000 crore in FY23 which is Tk17,004 crore more than that of the previous fiscal.
It collected 92% of the FY’s ambitious target of Tk136,000 crore which is marked as outstanding as per Annual Performance Agreement of the Ministry of Finance.
VAT collection grew by 18% alone in the month of June this year alone.
In FY22, the NBR had achieved 11.19% growth in VAT collection.
The NBR has collected Tk125,000 crore VAT in FY23 against Tk108,000 crore in FY22.
Of the amount, the VAT wing mobilized Tk15,614 crore revenue in the month of June alone.
Dhaka South, Khulna and Chittagong achieved the highest growth among the 12 VAT zones across the country.
Chittagong VAT zone achieved 38.71% growth, followed by Khulna with 24.71% and Dhaka South 19.89%.
Large Taxpayers unit (LTU) has collected the highest VAT worth Tk58,566 crore among the zones.
The NBR collected Tk3,000 crore more in taxes from tobacco users while achieving 11% growth in VAT collection from mobile phone users.
VAT collection from MS Rod increased by 58.46%, beverages by 31.19%, cement 33.72%, and rentals of commercial space by 20.11%.
From Petrobangla and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), VAT collection grew by 21.68% and 23.43% respectively.
From the sale of sweetmeat, the NBR achieved 38% growth while residential hotels 39%, and restaurants 16.78%.
Although VAT rates for restaurants have been reduced to 5% from 15%, the NBR collected 16.78% higher VAT from the businesses as the officials were active to check evasion, the NBR statement added.
