The National Board of Revenue (NBR) officials find the revenue achievement target challenging as the board has to collect around Tk56,991 crore in April to June of the current fiscal year.
The tax authority witnessed Tk4,515.53 crore short from target in July to March of this fiscal.
There was a shortfall in collection of income tax, Value Added Tax and other taxes, but the customs wing managed to surpass the target, according to NBR data released on Wednesday.
In the first nine months, NBR was able to mobilise Tk92,729.47 crore from its target of Tk97,245 crore.
The income tax wing witnessed Tk2,322 crore shortfall as the wing has mobilised around Tk30,017 crore against its target of Tk32,339 crore.
The VAT wing witnessed Tk3589.71 crore short of target as it collected Tk35,115 crore against the target of Tk38,705 crore.
NBR has collected around Tk620 crore against the target of Tk690 crore.
However, the customs wing has successfully surpassed the target as it has mobilised Tk26,977 crore against its target of Tk25,541 crore.
NBR officials said the revenue shortfall was not unexpected as the board failed to collect expected level of revenue due to political turmoil in the country that had affected the economic growth, resulting in economic downtrend.
“Investment was sluggish due to political situation while domestic consumption of products, that is closely related to VAT collection, fell significantly,” said a senior NBR official while pointing to reasons behind revenue shortfall.
Currently, NBR is working on how to find out potential sectors and taking different steps including settlement of cases through Alternative Dispute Resolution, increasing surveillance on taxpayers and bringing effectiveness in the Large Taxpayers’ Unit (LTU) to reach the target.
Officials however said NBR might come close to the target after revision as revenue collection gains momentum in last two to three months every financial year.
The government is now planning to revise down the revenue target at Tk1,35,028 crore from the original estimate of Tk1,49,720 crore on apprehension that the target would not be achieved as the collection faced setback due to political turmoil.