The mismatch between two statistics, maintained by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), on direct tax revenue collected during the last fiscal (2013-14) is not confirmed yet. But it has again put to question the reliability of the vital official statistics and the tax collection mechanism.
The NBR statistics say it had mobilised direct tax worth Tk 432.07 billion in the last fiscal. But the estimates, made by the CAG office, put the figure at Tk 383.65 billion. The gap is quite large -- Tk 48.41 billion. Circles concerned suspect that the gap would be even larger at the end of scrutiny of the revenue income from value added tax (VAT) and import duty during the last fiscal.
The NBR high-ups are reportedly concerned by the gaping mismatch between the two tax revenue estimates. But they have a feeling that the CAG estimate might have missed a few facts.
On the other hand, the CAG office claims that the primary estimate of direct tax receipts was done on the basis of records received from the NBR and there should not be any reason on its part for committing a mistake.
A Bangla financial daily has said the mismatch has cropped up mainly due to irregularities indulged in by a section of unscrupulous field-level tax officials involving the pay-orders and import documents. Besides, these officials did allegedly feed the head office with wrong information on tax collection.
Now the two government agencies have decided to hold a joint meeting to review the revenue mismatch issue on January 29 next.
Some tax officials do admit that there could be discrepancies in the estimates since the tax offices are yet to be fully automated.
The Bangla financial daily has also mentioned about an allegation that a section of field-level tax offices deliberately make delays in depositing the pay-orders against tax receipts with the Bangladesh Bank, despite the fact they do send information to the coordination cell at the tax division on the tax receipts.
The reasons for the delayed submission of pay-orders, usually of high value, remain shrouded in mystery. The NBR had earlier formed a committee to look into the issue. But nothing has happened. The fraudulence involving pay-orders is, allegedly, still on.
It is suspected that the delays in depositing pay-orders are done to benefit either the taxpayers or the pay-order-issuing bank branches. The high value pay-orders, if remain un-disbursed, can benefit either the taxpayers or the bank branches concerned. Both the parties won't mind to pay cash rewards to the tax officials concerned for the wilful delay in depositing the pay-orders with the central bank. There could be some other unexplained reasons for such mismatch.
However, the ministry of finance (MoF) is the right body to know how much it did receive as direct tax from the NBR in the last fiscal. But it is doubtful whether it maintains necessary records on such receipts.
Whatever may be reason, if the mismatch detected in the direct tax receipts in the last fiscal is finally confirmed through a thorough investigation, then one would get valid reasons to question all the exercises done in the name of budget preparation. The MoF at the fag end every financial year burns quite a large volume of midnight oil to locate resources to meet revenue as well as development expenditures in the next financial year.
But if the state of revenue earning and its deposit is marred this way by a section of dishonest taxmen at the field level, then what is the use of making such exercises?
However, the mismatch mentioned above is yet to be fully proved. It is expected that both NBR and the office of the CAG would make a thorough probe and settle the issue once for all. Otherwise, the quality of government's fiscal management as well as the reliability of official statistics will again be put to question.
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