Staff Correspondent
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is likely to reduce its annual income target by around Tk 2,000 crore due to the slide in import duties caused by the falling prices of commodities in the international market, said its officials on Monday.
‘The revised target may be reduced to Tk 52,500 crore from the projected target of Tk 54,500 crore,’ said a senior NBR official.
Contrary to the previous fiscal year when the NBR revised its target upward by more than Tk 3,000 crore, the NBR has to decrease the target this fiscal year after the growth rate of import duty plummeted to 11.5 per cent in first six months from the hefty rate of 27 per cent in first three months.
The official said the decision to revise the target downward will be taken by finance and planning minister AMA Muhith soon as the NBR is already facing a revenue shortfall of around Tk 4,500 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal year.
The NBR’s chairman, Abdul Mazid, said they have virtually nothing to do with the falling customs duties.
Commodity prices in the international market plunged in the last quarter of 2008 after soaring unabatedly in the first three quarters, he told New Age.
Besides the NBR chairman said the projected target in the current fiscal was ambitious and was set on a high growth achieved last fiscal.
The revenue growth recorded more than 25 per cent in last fiscal, thanks to the army-led crackdown against the businessmen and politicians.
The big shortfall is making it difficult for the newly elected government to ensure prudent fiscal management.
The revenue shortfall will force the government to go for additional borrowing from the local banking and non-banking sources, said Zaid Bakth, research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
The government has already borrowed more than Tk 9,000 crore from the local banking and non-banking sources in the first five months of this fiscal year to meet the revenue shortfall.
‘The higher borrowing by the government will deprive the private sector of funds for investment,’ he said.
The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s worried leaders recently met the finance minister and urged him to reduce government borrowing to meet the public expenditure.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
