NBR devising strategies to offset revenue loss as imports decline

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Doulot Akter Mala
The revenue board has moved to devise strategies for offsetting the revenue loss in the current fiscal as the global financial crisis has caused a significant decline in import of major items including petroleum, edible oil and sugar.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has asked its direct and indirect tax collection departments to submit reports with detailed recommendations on how to offset the revenue losses in their respective departments by December 28 next.
All tax offices will remain open on the next three government holidays, December 25-27, ahead of the national election.
The NBR is also preparing a work plan for helping the next elected government to frame a policy for revenue collection during the next six months.
'Income tax, customs and VAT departments will find out the vulnerable sectors which might affect the revenue collection. They will recommend urgent measures to be taken to minimise the loss," said a revenue board official.
For the income tax department, the NBR is taking all-out moves to increase the tax base by encouraging self-motivated taxpayers and also hunting for big taxpayers, he said.
The NBR for the first time in its history has taken a move to find out the fake taxpayer identification number (TIN) holders, who might be large taxpayers but still out of the tax net, he said.
The customs and VAT departments are bearing the brunt of the global financial crisis as import duty and VAT at the import stage are the major sources of earnings of the Internal Resources Division (IRD) that contribute 75 per cent of the total NBR-tax.
Last month, the customs commissioner (import) of Chittagong expressed his deep concern over the significant decline in import revenue as prices of all petroleum by-products marked a record decline in recent times.
"The NBR will focus on plugging the holes to stop revenue leakage, because the up and down in import revenue is natural and related with the international market," said a customs official.
There is about Tk 16 billion worth of revenue, stuck up on lawsuits, under the customs department. The NBR is also expediting its effort to realise it, he said.
The government has set a revenue collection target of Tk 545 billion for the current fiscal.
The caretaker government has framed all fiscal measures in line with the escalating prices of import commodities in the current fiscal budget but the scenario has changed from August, the official said.
A high-powered team of the government is now reviewing the policy to achieve the revenue collection target due to a drastic fall in prices in the international market, he added.