Tax collection against the submitted returns declined 1.53 per cent despite extending submission time thrice and the number of returns having increased by 150,000, possibly as the well-off remain on the run.
On the other hand, the overall tax receipt by the revenue board trails the target far off in the first half of the current financial year, 2024-25.
The deadline for submission of individuals' tax return expired Sunday.
Since July 2024 till February 16, 2025, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) had received Tk 62.44 billion from returns against Tk 63.42 billion in the same period last year, official data showed.
However, tax-return submission grew by 4.11 per cent in this period.
Talking to the FE Monday, income-tax member (Board admin) of the revenue board GM Abul Kalam Kaikobad said there is no reason to get worried on decline in tax collection from tax returns as overall return submission grew satisfactorily amid several economic challenges.
He suspects some taxpayers have shown nil income in online tax return while tax collection from well-off section declined for ongoing crackdown against corruption.
"We will look into the issue later," he says.
A senior income-tax official in the field-level tax offices said nearly 60 to 70 per cent of the individual taxpayers submit returns showing zero income every year.
"NBR receives a negligible amount of tax revenue from individual taxpayers. Most of the direct tax came from advance taxes paid by corporate taxpayers," he added.
The NBR has received 3.9 million tax returns from both companies and individuals against 3.8 million in the corresponding period last year.
Of the returns, some 3.9 million are from individuals and 13,066 from companies.
This year, more than 35 per cent of individual taxpayers submitted tax return online as the digitisation process progresses.
The NBR officials are hopeful about gradually expansion of online- tax-return facility for both individual and corporate taxpayers.
For the first time, the NBR has made online tax returns mandatory for some salaried taxpayers, including government officials, all bankers, and some multinationals.
Until December 2024, the NBR had faced a Tk 577.24-billion shortfall in its tax target handed by the government through the annual national budget.
Even, the domestic-revenue mobilisation in H1 was lower than that of the same period in the previous fiscal year.
According to NBR data, the tax-revenue-collection growth was in the negative trajectory in each of the months in the current financial year so far.
Provisional data show the NBR mobilised revenue worth Tk 1.56 trillion against its target of Tk 2.14 trillion during the period.
Collection of income tax, customs duty and VAT all lagged behind their respective targets by 31.43 per cent, 20.78 per cent and 27.70 per cent.
Also, the NBR collected lower VAT by 5.45 per cent in the first half of the FY than that of the same period in the previous year.
The income-tax wing of the revenue board bagged Tk 521.62 billion in taxes followed by VAT Tk 551.77 billion and customs duty Tk 490.80 billion.
Targets for the July-December period were Tk 760.67 billion for income tax, Tk 763.17 billion for VAT and Tk 619.52 billion for customs wing.
In the current fiscal year, the government has the target to collect a total of Tk 4.80 trillion worth of revenue on account of income tax, VAT and customs duty for financing the budget.
Of the target, the NBR has to collect Tk 1.77 trillion each as income tax and VAT and Tk 1.24 trillion as import-export taxes.
Dr Masrur Reaz, Chairman of Policy Exchange Bangladesh, praises the rise in the number of tax-return submissions this year despite economic downturn following political doldrums involving regime change.
He also finds the NBR move to popularise online returns "successful as the highest number of individuals submitted their tax returns online".
doulotakter11@gmail.com
© 2025 - All Rights with The Financial Express
