NBR chairman doubts about target achievement
Shortfall in the revenue collection increased further to Tk 4,964.41 crore in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, making the Bangladesh Revenue Board’s top officials worried about a possible failure in achieving the tax collection target set for
the FY 2012-2013, officials said.The gap between the target and collection of revenue has been swelling over the last few months due mainly to political unrest and economic slowdown including massive slump in import and slow growth in export, they said.
According to the NBR provisional data, Tk 82,060.25 crore in revenue was collected in July-April against the target of Tk 87,024.66 crore.
The officials said that the NBR might miss the revenue collection target of Tk 1,12,259 crore set for the fiscal year after exceeding the collection target in the last three fiscal years.
NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain also expressed his doubt about achieving the target.
‘We are extremely hopeful in achieving the target. But now, it seems that there is a possibility of shortfall to some extent in the current fiscal year as economic slowdown and political unrest have already led us towards a big deficit and such situation is continuing,’ he said at a meeting with the former members of the revenue administration on Wednesday.
However, the revenue board will continue its effort to achieve the target in the remaining two months, he said.
The NBR will have to collect Tk 25,235 crore in revenue in the remaining two months to achieve the target.
According to the NBR data, in the fiscal year 2011-2012, the NBR exceeded its revenue collection target by Tk 2,220.76 crore as it collected Tk 94,590.76 crore against the revised target of Tk 92,370 crore.
In the FY 2010-2011, the NBR collected Tk 79,092.20 crore against the target of Tk 75,600 crore while in the FY 2009-2010, the collection was Tk 62,042.16 crore against the target of Tk 61,000 crore.
The deficit in the NBR’s revenue collection continued to soar from July-November, 2012 when the collection fell short by Tk 2,900 crore due to negative growth in import, poor growth in export and stagnation in the commercial activities in the domestic market.
The shortfall slightly decreased to Tk 2,655.57 crore in July-December and to Tk 2,563.18 crore in July-January but it again increased to Tk 3,155 crore by the end of February due to political turmoil.
In July-March, the deficit swelled to Tk 3,701 crore due to a big jolt in the revenue collection from value-added tax and customs duties.
In July-April, VAT and customs wings of the NBR faced a big shock in revenue collection as the wings fell short by Tk 5,302 crore, while taxes from other sources faced a shortfall of Tk 331 crore, the data showed.
According to the data, only the revenue collection from income tax surpassed its target by Tk 669 crore in the period.
In July-April, the NBR collected Tk 26,317 crore in customs duties against the target of Tk 28,690 crore, Tk 29,381 crore in VAT against the target of Tk 32,310 crore and Tk 25,894 crore in income tax against the target of Tk 25,225 crore for the period, the NBR data showed.
The NBR has set a revenue collection target of Tk 40,400 crore in VAT, Tk 35,600 crore in customs duties and Tk 35,300 crore in income tax for the current fiscal year.
-With New Age input
