NBR misses seven months’ revenue targets

Doulot Akter Mala | Published: February 11, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Aggregate tax revenue collection fell short of target by 13.17 per cent until January of the current fiscal year (FY) due to sluggish economic activities and excessive target set for both income tax and Value Added Tax (VAT) wing.
Shortfall in tax revenue collection stood at Tk 120.03 billion in July-January period against its target.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) collected Tk 791.65 billion tax against its target for Tk 911.68 billion for income tax, VAT and customs wing in the first seven months.
However, the Board achieved 13.35 per cent growth in revenue collection over the corresponding period of last year. Last year, the NBR achieved 16.59 per cent growth in the first seven months.
Officials said overall growth target for revenue collection has been set at 29 per cent for the current FY while average growth of the last five years was 17.28 per cent.
Ambitious target, poor implementation of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) and sluggish growth in import of revenue-generating products are the reasons of poor revenue earnings in the current FY, they said.
All the three wings of the NBR missed their targets for July-January period.
VAT collection faced a negative 14.39 per cent growth against its target for the first seven months. Â
The VAT wing collected Tk 301.06 billion taxes against its target for Tk 351.65 billion.
A senior NBR official said potentiality of VAT collection remained unexplored due to lack of effective monitoring and cooperation of businesses.
Coordination between income tax and Value Added Tax (VAT) wings can help increase number of income tax and VAT payers through cross-checking data.
"Only 46,000 businesses submitted VAT returns while it should be at least seven to eight lakh. Some 6.5 lakh VAT payers are not submitting their VAT returns," he said.
The income tax wing can easily trace mid-level taxpayers through scrutinising information on VAT returns, he said.
According to NBR data, the Customs department collected Tk 245.01 billion tax revenue in the first seven months, missing its target by Tk 14.91 billion. However, the wing achieved 17.40 per cent growth over the corresponding period.
Income tax collection posted 9.66 per cent growth until January but also missed its target.
The government has set Tk 1.76 trillion target for the tax revenue collection in FY 2015-16.
Officials said the NBR has taken a number of steps to achieve revenue collection target including introduction of Annual Performance Agreement (APA), deployment of manpower in the field-level offices, speeding up of settlement of cases that involved large amount of revenue.
Meanwhile, a NBR press release Wednesday unveiled tax revenue collection data of July-December period quoting Finance Minister AMA Muhith's speech in the parliament.
In the first half of the current FY (H1), the NBR collected Tk 680.83 billion tax revenue against its target for Tk 770.98 billion. The Board collected Tk 590.94 billion in the corresponding period last year. The tax authority achieved 15.21 per cent growth in H1 over the matching period.
The NBR started its journey achieving Tk 1.66 billion revenue target in 1972-73 which rose to Tk 1.36 trillion in 2014-15.
Since 1972-73, the NBR has collecting 35 to 40 per cent tax revenue in the H1 while rest 60 to 65 per cent in the last six months of FY. The NBR achieved 39 per cent of its revenue collection target in the H1 of the current FY.
"The NBR expects increased investment, import of goods, export earnings, and satisfactory implementation of ADP in the next six months of the FY to achieve the revenue collection target," the press release said.
Â Â Â doulot_akter@yahoo.com