The Dhaka Customs House achieved above 20% revenue growth in the first six months of the current fiscal year, as it collected customs duty worth Tk2,218.49 crore during the period.
The performance of the single customs house, out of six in the country, is much better than national average of revenue growth from customs duty, sources at the National Board of Revenue (NBR) have said.
Officials concerned attributed the growth to post clearance audit, containing pilferage and strong monitoring by the authorities.
“We have taken zero tolerance against tax evasion and under invoicing,” Md Moazzem Hossain, commissioner, Customs House, Dhaka, told Dhaka Tribune.
He said post clearance audit also gave dividend in augmenting earnings from customs duty.
According to data of Dhaka Customs, major imported items that contributed to huge revenue receipts include food products, clothing, capital machinery, telecommunication equipment and mobile phone sets.
Customs officials said the earnings would have been more had the present Finance Bill not offered zero duty facility for parts used by the local mobile phone assembling companies.
“The fiscal measures aimed at developing local telecommunication assembling sector weighed on revenue earnings of the government,” Moazzem said.
He, however, said the local assembling industry was developing and many people were employed in the sector amid fiscal measures rolled out in the budget for 2019-2020.
Asked, officials concerned at the customs house said customs duty generated from inbound international passengers was only around 1% of total yearly revenue from the customs house.
The country has six customs houses. Around 90% revenue from import-level duties is generated through the houses, while the rest comes from land customs stations, according to NBR data.
The NBR collected Tk20,649.41 crore from customs duties in July-October of the current fiscal year, leaving Tk7,799 crore shortfall against its target of Tk28,448.63 crore.
However, the collection was only 0.09% higher than that of previous year. It was Tk20,631.67 crore in last year.
The government set the target of collecting Tk92,340 crore from the sector in the FY2019-20, up by 16.26%.
