State coffers increased by over Tk12 thousand crore or 9.11% in the first six months (July-December) of FY23, with tax collected by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in comparison to the same period in FY22 despite growing inflation, a slowing economy, and the erosion of real income.
A total of Tk1,42,973.22 crore or 38.64% of the overall Tk3.7 lakh crore target set for the entire fiscal year, was collected by the NBR in the first half of FY23.
NBR collections in the first half of FY22 was Tk 1,31,035.49 crore.
That indicates a YoY increase of Tk11,937.73 crore.
According to NBR data analysis, they collected Tk27,352.45 crore in revenue in December, which included Tk11,265.21 crore in income tax, Tk9,207.8 crore in VAT, and Tk6,879.44 crore in customs revenue.
Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, the chairman of NBR, expressed satisfaction with the growth in the collection in 2022.
He said that the year 2022 was more challenging for NBR than the Covid-19 pandemic years. The NBR innovations started showing results through faster revenue mobilization and delivery of services. But there is still huge scope to work in the NBR and explore new paths.
Another success of the NBR is the placement of the draft of a new income tax law in the cabinet recently, he added.
Far behind the FY23 target
Data shows, although the collection of revenue had better growth than FY22, it was still far behind then the target of FY23.
Revenue collection by the National Board of Revenue fell 9.56% or Tk15,112.85 crore short of the target set for the July-December period of the current FY23, according to NBR's provisional data.
So far NBR has collected only 38.64% of the total Tk3.7 lakh crore target set for the entire fiscal year.
So the revenue board will have to collect Tk2,27,026.78 crore or 61.36% of the full year's target in the remaining months of the fiscal year.
Of the full-year collection target, the income tax wing will collect Tk1,22,100 crore, the customs wing Tk1,11,000 crore and the VAT wing Tk1,36,900 crore.
In the first six months of FY23, the revenue board collected Tk1,42,973.22 crore while the collection target was Tk1,58,086.07 crore, the data showed.
The average revenue collection growth was 12.12% in the past five years.
Target shortfall
Data analysis revealed that though the YoY collection grew, it's still far behind then the target set by the revenue board.
In July-December of FY23, the income tax collection fell 5.84% or Tk2,769.85 crore short of the target, the value-added tax collection fell 4.88% or Tk2,737.38 crore short of the target and the customs revenue collection fell 17.61% or Tk9,605.62 crore short of the target.
The income tax wing of the revenue board collected Tk44,642.15 crore against the target of Tk47,412 crore.
The value-added tax wing collected Tk53,391.63 crore against the target of Tk56,129.01 crore.
On the other hand, according to the NBR data, the customs wing got Tk44,939.44 crore against the target of Tk54,545.06 crore set for the period.
