The National Board of Revenue (NBR) collected Tk197,839 crore in the first seven months (July-January) of FY24, roughly 51% of the fiscal's revised target.
Data shows that despite a revenue growth of 15.09% year on year (YOY), the revenue deficit compared to the revised target is Tk17,751 crore.
That means the actual target during the period was Tk215,590 crore.
If the initial target set in the budget is calculated, the deficit will be more, insiders said.
In the budget of the current fiscal, the NBR was initially given a target of Tk430,000 crore. However, this target was recently revised down to Tk410,000 crore.
Though 51% of the overall target has been achieved in the first seven months of the fiscal, more than Tk211,000 crore still needs to be collected in the remaining 5 months to fulfill the revised target.
In other words, an average of Tk42,432 crore should be collected every month, according to the data analysis.
In this regard, Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of private research institute Policy Research Institute (PRI), said: "I’m not very optimistic about the NBR’s revenue collection achievement. I think there will be a big shortfall in revenue collection this year as well. This deficit may be up to Tk30,000-Tk40,000 crore by the end of the fiscal year."
According to him, legal reforms will be needed along with revenue administration to increase revenue collection.
Sector-wise revenue
According to the NBR, none of these three sectors -- customs, VAT, and income tax --could meet the first seven-month target.
The biggest deficit has been in the customs sector.
In seven months, Tk57,540 crore have been collected against the target of Tk64,770 crore in the customs sector.
The revenue deficit in this sector was Tk7,230 crore.
Then, on the basis of shortfall, the second was the income tax sector.
The deficit in this sector in the first seven months of FY24 was Tk7,227 crore.
The target in the income tax sector was Tk70,302 crore, but Tk63,74 crore was collected.
On the other hand, in the VAT sector, NBR was Tk3,293 crore short of the target.
From July to January, NBRs target was Tk80,517 crore but they could collect Tk77,224 crore.
