Vandalism, shutdowns major hindrances to collection
The revenue board risks falling short of Tk 10,000 crore to Tk 13,000 crore from its revenue collection target set for the current fiscal year if the prevailing business situation does not improve and normalcy returns to power the economy. The gloomy outlook on revenue earnings for whole of 2013-14 fiscal year has recently been appraised to the finance ministry by the National Board of Revenue after the main revenue generator of the government fell short of target by Tk 3,119.68 crore during July-October period, a top finance official said.
The bleak picture was placed at a recent meeting of the council for the coordination of fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policies in the finance ministry.
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith was present at the meeting along with Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman and a number of senior secretaries concerned of the government.
‘We are worried, so are the revenue officials on the prospect of earnings,’ a top official of finance ministry, who attended the meeting, told New Age on Wednesday.
NBR Chairman Md Ghulam Hussain and two NBR members also attended the meeting.
Around 20 per cent of the total annual revenue income of the government comes from non-tax revenue, and only about three per cent from non-NBR tax. The rest of the revenue income is generated by NBR tax, according to a recent finance ministry study.
The revenue officials blamed the prevailing turbulent political situation for the gloomy picture that caused lower than expected import in the country. They said the growth in revenue generation is extremely impossible if businesses do not expand their activities and normal industrial production is hampered.
The meeting was apprised that customs might see a shortfall of Tk 6,000 crore–Tk 7,000 crore, value added tax by Tk 3,000 crore—Tk 4,000 crore and income tax around Tk 1,000 crore to Tk 2,000 crore in the run up to the end of FY2013-14.
The government set a revenue collection target of Tk 1,36,090 crore for the current fiscal year from the NBR portion 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.
‘We could earn as much as Tk 1,25,000 crore to Tk 1,26,000 crore in the best case scenario,’ a member of NBR told New Age.
‘If political vandalism and back to back shutdowns go unabated the future revenue outlook could be horrendous.’
The country’s overall imports fell significantly in October over the previous month due mainly to the ongoing political turmoil centring the next general election, officials said on Wednesday.
Opening of letters of credit against imports dropped by 11.23 per cent to $2.79 billion in October from $3.15 billion the previous month, according to the central bank statistics.
On the other hand, the settlement of LCs, generally known as actual imports, decreased by more than 8.00 per cent to $2.84 billion in October 2013 from $3.09 billion in September.
’Overall imports may fall further in the coming months as the industrialists feel shattered amid the ongoing political confrontation,’ a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank told New Age.
Asked, the NBR Chairman refrained from making any direct observation on the particular issue.
‘We have to work hard to generate more revenues,’ Ghulam Hussain told New Age on Wednesday at his NBR office.
-With New Age input
