The National Board of Revenue continued to struggle in revenue collection as it failed to attain its collection target in the first quarter of the current financial year that made the revenue officials worried about achieving the target set for the entire year, NBR officials said.
They said in July-September, revenue collection by the NBR fell short of the target by Tk 1,994.64 crore as its all three wings — income tax, customs and value-added tax — failed to collect their targeted revenues.
According to the provisional data, the revenue board collected Tk 23,964.13 crore in July-September lagging behind by 7.68 per cent against the target of Tk 25,958.77 crore in the period.
The revenue earning, however, grew by 12.13 per cent or Tk 3,070 crore higher in the period from the amount collected in the same period of the last year, the data showed.
The growth rate, however, remained significantly slower compared with the growth target of around 22 per cent set by the NBR for the entire year, officials of the NBR said.
In July-September 2012, the NBR collected Tk 20,984.12 crore in revenues.
The NBR officials said the shortfall in revenue collection widened further in September, the third month in a row.
Deficit in revenue collection was Tk 1,015 in August while it was only Tk 122.24 crore in July, the first month of the financial year, they said.
They said the shortage might reduce a little bit after getting final figures of value-added tax collection after mid October.
‘The revenue collection trend, particularly from VAT and customs, is not satisfactory as VAT collection from some big sectors and collection from import-based duties has slowed down,’ a high NBR official told New Age on Thursday.
In this situation, the revenue board has been holding continuous discussions to find a possible way-out from the sluggish collection scenario, he said.
The NBR may issue a set of instructions to its field offices on how to increase revenue earning from different sources, he added.
According to the NBR data, in July-September, the revenue earning from VAT, customs duties, income tax and other taxes fell short of the target by Tk 1,137.49 crore, Tk 459.15 crore, Tk 279 crore and Tk 119 crore respectively.
In the period, the NBR collected Tk 8,098.71 crore from customs duties, Tk 8,419.42 crore from VAT, Tk 7,316 crore from income tax and Tk 130 crore from other taxes.
The target of collection was Tk 8,557.86 crore, Tk 9,556.91 crore, Tk 7,595 crore and Tk 249 crore from customs duties, VAT, income tax and other sources respectively in the period.
Though the revenue collection usually remains dull in the first two to three months of a financial year, the collection rate seems remarkably slower in this FY as the NBR has set big target for its field offices to meet the total target for the entire year, said an official.
Experiencing such shortage from the beginning of the financial year, the revenue board is now working to boost collection, he said.
The NBR set a revenue collection target of Tk 1,36,090 crore for the FY14.
The highest Tk 51,000 crore was envisaged to be collected from VAT, Tk 48,300 crore from income tax, Tk 35,790 crore from customs duties and Tk 1,000 crore from other taxes.
-With New Age input
