Even though the proposed revenue target for the fiscal year 2015-16 is quite high, the National Board of Revenue is ready to achieve the target, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said yesterday.
“The revenue target was increased by 23% in a year. The NBR is quite ready now [to achieve the target]. The manpower was almost doubled and complete training sessions were arranged for tax officials,” he told a post-budget press conference at the capital’s Osmani Memorial Auditorium.
The revenue target has been proposed at Tk176,370 crore for FY2015-16.
NBR chairman Nojibur Rahman said the capacity of the revenue administration has increased significantly compared to any time in its history.
“We will surely be able to achieve the target of Tk176,370 crore in the upcoming fiscal year,” he said, adding that some manpower shortage that remained would be resolved soon.
Nojibur said the NBR would not put any extra pressure on businesses, rather it was working to bring public sectors under the tax net.
He said the NBR would establish separate tax zones to deal with the deduction of source tax.
According to NBR data, over 54% of income tax generates from source tax, also known as withholding tax, while the share is over 90% in developed countries like USA and other European nations.
The chairman also said the board has mobilised around Tk20,000 crore in the outgoing fiscal year through the collection of due tax.
He also expected that the revenue board now held the capacity to collect Tk200,000 crore revenue in the coming fiscal year.
However, civil society think tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has termed the revenue target of Tk176,370 crore highly ambitious.
A big share of the revenue target would not be possible to achieve, said CPD Distinguished Fellow Debapriya Bhattachariya at a separate press conference yesterday in the city’s Brac Inn.