NBR risks losing Tk 10b as importers decide to go slow

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Shakhawat Hossain
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is facing the risk of incurring loss of more than Tk 10 billion (1,000 crore) in the current month following the government policy of introducing transparency in fiscal measures, official sources said.
The interim government, that announced the next fiscal year's national budget, first of its kind in the country's history, has not made the fiscal measures effective immediately.
"Instead of giving immediate effect, the fiscal measures will be made effective from July 01 next….a breakthrough in ensuring fiscal transparency," said NBR chairman Badiur Rahman.
However, such measures could not produce any positive remits for the revenue board as bill of entry by the importers has reduced substantially in the current month, he added.
The NBR chairman, however, did not specify the extent of decline in bill of entry and the probable amount of revenue losses during the fiscal's last month.
He, however, said the revenue generation target of nearly Tk 55 billion (5,500 crore) in the last and most crucial month of the fiscal might not be achieved due to reluctance of the importers in taking delivery of the imported items.
The NBR chairman added that the revenue board might face the biggest ever shortfall worth nearly Tk 18 billion against the revised target in the outgoing fiscal year.
For the 2006-07 fiscal, the caretaker government revised the annual revenue target lowering it to Tk 374.79 billion from the original target of Tk 410.55 billion projected by the immediate past government.
The revenue target for the new fiscal has been projected at Tk 438.50 billion, which has already been termed ambitious by some critics, as it is almost 17 per cent higher than the revised target of the outgoing fiscal.
However, the caretaker administration is desperate to increase the revenue generation following a recent finding that the NBR income growth was almost zero compared to the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during the last two fiscal years.
According to a pact between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the revenue board needs 0.4 per cent revenue growth compared to the growth of GDP annually.
But the NBR's income has grown less than 0.2 per cent in the outgoing fiscal creating problems for the Ministry of Finance to maintain the fiscal balance.