Income tax collection misses target in Ctg

CHITTAGONG, July 4: Reduction in imports caused by political instability late last year was blamed as the annual income tax collection in the financial year (FY) 2013-14 in Chittagong missed the target.

All four tax zones realised an accumulated amount of Tk 61.98 billion against the target of Tk 67.50 billion set by the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

The target for the Chittagong Tax Zone 1 was Tk 38.00 billion. But it collected Tk 32.50 billion. The major source of income tax in the zone is the revenue earned from import through the Chittagong Port.

The Chittagong Tax Zone-1 missed the target by Tk 5.50 billion while three other zones did fairly well.

Commissioner of Income Tax Zone 2 Apurba Kanti Das said his zone in the immediate past financial year crossed the target as it realised Tk 12.55 billion against the target of Tk 12.50 billion.

The Chittagong Tax Zone- 3 also realised Tk 11.78 billion against the target set by the NBR at Tk 11.50 billion while the amount realised by the newly-created Zone-4 was Tk 5.15 billion against the target of Tk 5.25 billion in the year 2013-14.

"Reduced import bills in the last fiscal were the cause of the less collection of income tax by the Zone 1 in the Chittagong region," he said. Import of goods last year was much less than the previous year due to a hostile political situation, he added.