It cannot be gainsaid that the country's tax regulator, the National Board of Revenue (NBR), is confronted with massive structural, administrative and macroeconomic bottlenecks stymieing its efforts to meet revenue target of over Tk6.0 trillion for the fiscal year 2026-27. Against this backdrop, the new NBR chief is learnt to have specifically identified inaccurate valuation of import containers at the Chattogram Port as a massive source of revenue leakage. By plugging this specific loophole and enforcing strict administrative measures, the NBR can well boost its revenues. Indeed, a combination of systemic, technological and governance vulnerabilities came in the way of the tax regulator's repeated failures to curb revenue leakages at the country's premier port.
The massive loss of revenue stems from several deep-rooted factors. At the top of the list remains widespread trade mis-invoicing. Importers routinely under-invoice high-tariff goods to evade actual tax payment and over-invoice capital machinery to illegally transfer funds out of the country, a practice that costs Bangladesh billions of dollars annually. Obviously, taking advantage of weak port governance, some traders in collusion with a section of corrupt officials have been depriving the national exchequer of revenues since long. Undeniably, manual interventions required at various stages of port processing foster such corrupt practices. In this connection, trade bodies have repeatedly highlighted that removing containers or bypassing proper assessments often requires collusion among syndicates, clearing agents and corrupt officials. This necessarily points to technological deficits in the port processing that need to be narrowed immediately. In truth, the NBR has historically lacked a fully integrated and automated valuation database.
Without real-time, digital cross-referencing of international market prices and automated risk-management system in place, customs officials struggle to detect false declarations or tampered weighbridges. The absence of seamless coordination between the customs, VAT, and income tax wings prevents effective post-clearance audits. Unsurprisingly, evasion goes unnoticed because revenue data are not proactively synchronised across departments to verify the actual commercial value of imported goods. The primary actions should involve checking widespread evasion tactics importers often use to hide the actual value, quantity or premium nature of goods arriving in containers to significantly lower their customs duty bracket. The practice of raw materials imported duty-free under the pretext of export production and illegally diverted directly into the domestic local market (a practice costing the exchequer an estimated Tk 50 billion annually nationwide) has to be stopped. Similarly, the tax authority will have to put a stop to over-invoicing or under-invoicing of goods to illegally siphon capital out of the country. In the circumstances, to enable the tax administration to capture the lost revenues and streamline operations, the NBR chief has laid out a targeted action plan.
That involves ensuring that customs officials cross-verify and apply precise, market-reflective values on all containerised imports upon arrival. At the same time, to ensure compliance, officials will be required to enhance monitoring and auditing of companies that are utilising duty-free import benefits. It would also be worthwhile to note at this point that currently, a large number of tax and customs-related cases are pending in the High Court. So, there is a need to push for fast-tracking resolution of those cases. Such efforts have the potential to instantly unlock substantial tied-up revenue. To succeed in the efforts to meet the revenue target would require shifting the institutional mindset towards smoother clearance and elimination of unnecessary bureaucratic delays in building the country's tax base organically. Meeting the revenue target demands an unprecedented year-on-year revenue growth of nearly 40 per cent to 45 per cent. So, there is no alternative to putting aside internal differences in the tax administration in favour of collective teamwork, increasing operational efficiency and adopting a taxpayer-friendly approach to make the ambitious revenue target achievable.
