NBR blames political unrest, economic stagnation, excessive target
The National Board of Revenue continued to struggle in achieving its revenue collection target amid volatile political environment and economic slowdown prevailing in the country as shortfall in revenue collection further widened in the first four months of the current fiscal year, officials of the NBR said. According to NBR data released on Thursday, the revenue board fell short of target by Tk 3,119.68 crore or 8.58 per cent in July-October of FY 2013-14.
In the period, the NBR managed to collect Tk 33,492.84 crore against the collection target of Tk 36,612.52 crore, the data showed.
Officials said that the deficit doubled in the four months of the fiscal year than that in the first three months of the fiscal year mainly because of political unrest including frequent shutdowns and economic recession.
The target set for the period was also excessive compared with that of the same period of last year, they said.
If the situation prolongs, the gap between target and collection may continue to widen in coming months, they said.
In July-September of the current fiscal year, shortfall in revenue collection was Tk 1,313.43 crore.
Deficit in revenue collection was Tk 1,015 crore in August while it was only Tk 122.24 crore in July, first month of the financial year.
The negative growth in the revenue collection from different sub-sectors including export duty, supplementary duty at import level and excise duty along with slower growth in revenue earnings in import duty and VAT at import stage resulted in wider deficit in the period, officials said.
Revenue earnings in the four months, however, grew by 16.38 per cent or Tk 4,845.84 crore than that of the same time of the previous year.
According to the data, all the three wings of the revenue board—customs, value-added tax and income tax— failed to achieve their respective collection targets in July-October that widened the shortfall in the period.
Revenue earnings from customs duties, VAT, income tax and other taxes fell short of the target by Tk 7,69.82 crore, Tk 832.49 crore, Tk 1,387.82 crore and Tk 129.55 crore respectively.
In the period, the NBR collected Tk 10,678.11 crore in customs duties,
Tk 12,415.02 crore in VAT, Tk 10,196.18 crore in income tax and Tk 203.53 crore in other taxes.
The targets of collection were Tk 11,447.93 crore in customs duties, Tk 13,247.51 crore in VAT, Tk 11,584 crore in income tax and Tk 333.08 crore from other sources in the period.
In the period, collection of customs duties grew by 2.37 per cent, that of VAT by 20.34 per cent, that of income tax by 30.31 per cent and that from other sources grew by negative 2.30 per cent, the data showed.
The NBR set a revenue collection target of Tk 1,36,090 crore for the current fiscal year with the highest Tk 51,000 crore was 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.
-With New Age input
