Around 85% of large corporate taxpayers, including cigarette, cement, gas, and mobile-phone companies, failed to meet the government's value-added tax (VAT) targets last FY26 amid sluggish business environment and lower-than-expected consumption.
Of the 34 business sectors under the VAT Large Taxpayers Unit (VAT-LTU), 29 missed their respective targets, according to the latest provisional compiled data of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
Officials said the targets were apparently set without adequately considering the prevailing economic and business conditions.
The VAT-LTU had set a revenue collection target of Tk108,000 crore for FY26, against which it collected Tk87,500 crore, although collection grew by nearly 10% year on year.
Cigarette companies missed their target by 17%, or Tk8,856 crore, despite recording nearly 19% year-on-year growth in VAT payments.
VAT collection from five gas companies fell short of the target by 37.70% and declined by nearly 2% year on year.
The five gas companies paid Tk218 crore less in VAT in FY26 than in the previous fiscal year.
Similarly, the VAT-LTU collected Tk1,236 crore less from 17 private commercial banks than their combined target.
However, collection from the banks increased slightly, by nearly 3% year on year.
The VAT-LTU collected Tk76,953 crore in FY25, compared with Tk73,660 crore in FY24.
VAT collection from large taxpayers fell short of the target by Tk8,337 crore in FY25, while the shortfall increased sharply to Tk24,538 crore in FY26.
In FY25, VAT collection from 25 of the 34 sectors under the LTU recorded positive year-on-year growth.
In FY26, however, 20 sectors registered positive growth, while the remaining sectors recorded negative growth.
The number of sectors witnessing a decline in VAT collection increased to 14 in FY26 from nine in FY25.
Mobile phone, cement, paper, footwear, packaging materials, electrical goods, coconut oil, BTRC, oxygen, telecom equipment, and manufacturers were among the sectors that recorded negative growth in VAT collection last year.
Despite the slowdown across a majority of sectors, the LTU-VAT receipts grew by nearly 10% in FY26, which was 4% in FY25.