Revenue target set at Tk 1,82,520cr for FY15 budget
The overall revenue earning target for the upcoming fiscal year will see around 17 per cent rise compared with the revised estimate for the outgoing fiscal year as the finance ministry plans to introduce new tax measures and increase the existing slabs in the new budget. Finance ministry officials along with senior taxmen have been working to find out untapped areas for taxation and the existing potential sectors for slapping enhanced tax so that ambitious revenue target set for the upcoming financial year is achieved, sources said.
The budget for the FY 2014-2015 is expected to be unveiled in the first week of June.
The finance ministry last week set the revenue income target of the government for the upcoming 2014-2015 fiscal year at Tk 1,82,520 crore, up by around 17 per cent from the revised income target of the outgoing fiscal year, top officials at the ministry said.
Of the total income targeted, the National Board of Revenue has to generate Tk 1,49,720 crore or 82.02 per cent, Tk 27,660 crore or 15.15 per cent to be sourced from non-tax revenue and the remaining Tk 5,140 crore or 1.82 per cent will come from non-NBR portion.
The revenue officials term the target challenging, but achievable.
‘The target set for the NBR for the next fiscal year is obviously achievable provided normal business activities are not hampered through political vandalism or anarchism,’ Md Ghulam Hussain, chairman of the NBR, told New Age on Friday.
NBR officials, however, said though the overall revenue growth had been set at 17 per cent, the growth from the NBR portion had been set at 20 per cent from its revised earning estimate.
‘Normal business environment and new investment in the economy are of paramount importance to go with the growth outlook of the government,’ a member of the NBR told New Age.
He said the NBR would concentrate high on boosting earnings from income tax as growth from customs and value-added tax would have relatively lower potentials.
Around Tk 65,000 crore or 65 per cent of NBR’s target is expected to be sourced alone from income tax wing as the NBR officials are planning to hike the tax slabs for individuals, broaden the tax net and purview of the advance income tax, sources said.
Though the taxmen are planning to reduce the customs duty on wide-ranging products to comply with the provisions of the World Trade Organisation, they are, however, set to enhance the VAT rates on different categories of business operations and consumers’ transactions, an NBR member hinted.
He said the NBR’s drafting on new taxation policy for the upcoming budget would be finalised by the next week as they were asked to place the same to finance minister AMA Muhith latest by May 15 for his approval.
The national budget for the FY 2014-2015 is expected to be unveiled on June 5 or June 12, a finance ministry official said.
The official said the next budget would increase the existing taxes of a number of heads falling under non-tax revenue and non-NBR portion.
The heads to come under enhanced tax include vehicle registration fee, vehicle fitness fee, land certificate fee, land registration fee, mutation fee, land development fee, bridge toll and narcotics tax.
The revised revenue target for the current fiscal year has been trimmed to Tk 1,56,369 crore, a finance ministry official said.
-With New Age input
