The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has witnessed a revenue shortfall of over Tk2,968 crore, with highest shortfall in Value Added Tax wing in the first eight months of the ongoing fiscal year 2014-15.
NBR officials said the board has been failing to achieve its revenue target mainly due to political turmoil that is affecting the economic growth of the country very negatively.
Exports to different countries have started to fall, small and medium enterprises are incurring losses, bank credit is falling, and sluggishness in investment in private sector is on the rise due to the ongoing political turmoil.
From July to March of the current fiscal, the tax authority has collected Tk79,978.72 crore against the target of Tk82,946 crore, according to the NBR official data released on Monday.
Among the three wings, value added tax and income tax wing have witnessed the shortfalls, however, the customs wing has surpassed its target. During the time frame, the VAT wing has witnessed Tk2,940 crore shortfall as it managed to collect Tk30,734 crore against the target of Tk33,675 crore.
The NBR officials said the VAT collection fell significantly short from the target mainly due to fall of domestic consumption of product and services.
Income tax collection also fell short by Tk1,063 crore in the period due to lower collection of corporate tax and tax at sources.
Taxmen managed to collectTk 25,466 crore in income tax including travel tax and other direct taxes in July-February period of the fiscal year against the collection target of Tk26,529 crore.
Meanwhile, the NBR was able to surpass the target of customs duties by Tk1,035 crore as the wing has managed Tk23,777 crore against the target of Tk22,742crore.
In the remaining four months of the fiscal, the taxmen will face a massive challenge as it will have to collect Tk69,742 crore or 46.58% of total target of Tk1,49,720 crore for the entire fiscal year to achieve its target.
