The government has set a target of increasing the contribution of revenue to GDP or tax to GDP ratio to 8% in the current FY26.
To meet this target, it will have to collect about Tk125,000 crore additional revenue compared to the last fiscal year. That is, the growth in revenue collection compared to the last fiscal year will have to be about 34%.
However, the reality is different. The growth in revenue collection in the seven months from July 2025 to January 2026 is only less than 13%.
In this situation, chief adviser on finance and planning Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir directed to take immediate steps to collect increased revenue in a meeting with senior officials of the organization at the NBR headquarters on Wednesday (March 11).
He wants the NBR to quickly inform the government about how much revenue collection can be increased from which sectors in the remaining four months of the current fiscal year (March to June) and what plans are being taken for this.
A VAT department official present at the meeting, on condition of anonymity, said: “According to the government’s set target, the scope for increasing revenue collection in the remaining months is limited. It is possible to increase the collection to some extent if a special drive is launched to collect the arrears.”
The local and global economic situation is not satisfactory. Development projects are slow, while imports and exports are running at a low pace. In such a situation, it is not easy to earn such a huge revenue. There is also no scope for a new tax increase in the middle of the fiscal year. However, special steps may be taken in the next budget for FY27, he added.
According to NBR data, there is currently arrears of revenue of about Tk100,000 crore. A large part of this is unresolved and some part is stuck in legal complications or cases.
Officials believe that if a major campaign is launched to collect these arrears in the remaining time, a significant amount of money can be collected.
An analysis of revenue collection statistics shows that the pace of collection has slowed down in the last three months. The growth that was there at the beginning of the fiscal year is now gradually decreasing. In such a situation, maintaining a normal growth trend is considered a big challenge for the NBR.