Muhith says target to be revised by this month
Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on Monday said the government would revise the revenue collection target set for the current fiscal year by this month as the National Board of Revenue fell short of target by Tk 8,509.69 crore in the first half of the FY 2013-14.
‘Revenue collection target needs to be revised and that will be done by this month,’ Muhith told reporters after a meeting with the NBR officials in the revenue board’s conference room in the capital.
Muhith along with the newly-inducted state minister for finance, MA Mannan, visited the revenue board on the day.
On Sunday, Muhith took oath as minister and Mannan as state minister of the new cabinet formed after January 5 national elections. Muhith became finance minster for the second successive term.
According to the NBR provisional data, all the three wings of the revenue board — customs, value-added tax and income tax — in July-December failed to achieve their collection targets that increased the shortfall to a record high in the history of the NBR.
In the period, the NBR managed to collect Tk 49,009.13 crore against the target of Tk 57,518.82 crore.
In July-December, revenue collection grew only by 9.18 per cent or Tk 4,144.2 crore compared with the same period of last fiscal year, the data showed.
In July-November, the shortfall was Tk 5,331 crore. The deficit increased by Tk 3,178.69 crore in December.
Muhith said ‘political anarchy and terrorism’ prevailing in the country for the last three months were the reasons for the shortfall in revenue collection in the period.
‘The economic activities could not be run due to the political troubles in the last three months. How people will earn and pay taxes if economic activities cannot be run properly?’ he said.
He said, ‘The anarchy has almost come to an end and will hopefully stop by the end of this month.’
According to the NBR, the income tax wing fell short of target by Tk 3,432.79 crore in the first six months of the fiscal. The NBR saw a shortfall of Tk 2,844 crore in VAT, Tk 2,024.34 crore in customs duties and Tk 208.55 crore in taxes in other sources in the period.
At Monday’s meeting, MA Mannan hoped that the government would be able to continue the development in socio-economic sectors that it achieved in the last five years.
NBR chairmen Ghulam Hussain attributed the shortfall in revenue collection in the first half of this fiscal year to the ongoing political unrest, world economic recession and devaluation of the dollar against the taka.
According to NBR data, revenue earnings from income tax, customs duties, VAT and other taxes stood at Tk 15,634.21 crore, Tk 14,937.54 crore, Tk 18,146.31 crore and Tk 291.07 crore respectively in July-December against the targets of Tk 19,067 crore, Tk 16,961.88 crore, Tk 20,990.32 crore and Tk 499.62 crore.
In the period, income tax earnings grew by 20.96 per cent, VAT by 11.97 per cent while customs duties grew negative by 3.35 per cent, the data showed.
The NBR has already informed the government that they would not be able to achieve the target in the current fiscal year and the deficit might reach up to Tk 13,000 crore by the end of the year.
The NBR set a revenue collection target of Tk 1,36,090 crore for the current fiscal year with the highest Tk 51,000 crore envisaged to be collected in VAT, Tk 48,300 crore in income tax, Tk 35,790 crore in customs duties and Tk 1,000 crore in other taxes.
-With New Age input
