National Board of Revenue (NBR) has failed to achieve its revenue earnings target for the five consecutive months of the current fiscal year despite the average growth rate was increased to 14% in the same period.
The overall shortfall in revenue collection for July-November period of the ongoing fiscal stands at Tk8,308 crore, according to the sources in the NBR.
Although the board has witnessed an upward average growth trend, the NBR has collected over Tk54,408 crore in the first five months against the target of around Tk62,716 crore for the period, shows NBR data.
The NBR has witnessed a record high 23.34% revenue growth in November comparing to October this year.
Moreover, the average growth rate was increased to 14% in last five months while the average growth was 10.44% in the first four months till October.
NBR data shows, the board has collected highest revenue from Value Added Tax (VAT) wing with a 32.49% growth, followed by customs wing with 26.72% and income tax wing with 10.77% growth respectively only in November.
Surveillance and strict monitoring by authorities and collection of unpaid tax from different organisations helped the VAT wing to achieve highest amount of tax during the period.
The NBR has been assigned to mobilise Tk176,370 crore in the current fiscal year with a 29% growth rate comparing to the last fiscal.
Though the economists termed the target ‘ambitious’, the board is still quite confident about achieving the target by the end of the year.
According to NBR officials, the revenue collection gets momentum in the last few months of the fiscal year as implementation of the government’s Annual Development Plan is held during the period.
Earlier, the government used to fix higher revenue targets in the last six month of any fiscal, but this year, the monthly revenue targets were fixed equally for 12 months that has attributed to the revenue shortfall scenario.
“Due to the increased monitoring, NBR will be able to surpass its revenue collection target at the end of the fiscal year,” said NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman.
He also said: “The board has taken up a series of initiatives to establish good governance in the institution.”
The targets will be achieved through establishment of good relationship with businesses and through abolishing reported harassment, he added.
The NBR is working together with parliament’s finance related and public accounts related committees, judiciary, audit department, and other government agencies including office of the attorney general in revenue collection.
In addition, private stakeholders like Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), Dhaka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) and Metropolitan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) were also included in the revenue collection strategies to help achieve the target, said NBR Chief.
The chairman also said, “The NBR has taken up initiatives to collect unpaid tax from the government offices including collection of Tk23, 000 crore that remain pending with Petrobangla and Bangladesh Petrolium Corporation (BPC).”
Realising Tk31,000 crore from the cases pending with the Supreme Court is underway through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism.
