The government's tax collection may face a shortfall worth nearly Tk30,000 crore in the current fiscal year 2021-22, although the revenue board achieved an average 15% monthly growth in collection.
The amount of shortfall is equivalent to revenue mobilized in a month.
Until this May, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) collected Tk252,000 crore tax, achieving nearly 15% growth over the corresponding period, according to its provisional data.
As per estimation, the NBR will be able to collect Tk300,000 crore tax revenue in FY22, which ends on June 30, against its original target of Tk330,000 crore.
In June alone, the last month of the FY, the agency will have to collect Tk77,080 crore tax revenue to achieve the target.
Officials deem it difficult, following the last-month revenue collection trend in the previous five years.
However, the officials were optimistic about achieving the target, if a large sum of arrear revenue can be collected from the state-owned entities, including Petrobangla.
In May 2022, the NBR collected Tk25,164 crore tax revenue against Tk22,489 crore in the corresponding month last year.
Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute (PRI), said the revenue board would carry over the shortfall in the upcoming FY, as a modest target of Tk370,000 crore has been set for the next year.
Increase in import and its value contributed to the rise in revenue collection (this year).
Without proper reform initiatives, the revenue collection growth would not be more than 12-15% despite having potential, he opined.
The NBR extended time for submission of corporate tax returns, and withholding tax would be collected to a great extent from various development activities.
In the last five-six years, the government used to revise the original tax revenue collection target downward before the end of FY.
This year, the target remains unchanged, as the NBR expressed optimism to reach closer to the target with its intensified effort, he added.
Until May, import tax collection grew by 26.29%, income tax by 18%, and VAT by 10.30%.