Tax-revenue collection by government's revenue authority grew 14.36 per cent in July-October of the current fiscal, pushed by price rises, yet the receipt missed the mark for the four months.
Both VAT and income-tax collection grew by 17 per cent in the period while import-duty collection grew by 9.12 per cent, according to provisional data collated by the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
Despite the pushes from inflationary pressure--borne by consumers--the NBR was lagging behind its target for first four months of the financial year (FY) 2023-24 by Tk 123.18 billion.
The revenue board had collected Tk 1.03 trillion till October against its budgetary target set by the government at Tk 1.16 trillion-contributing to shortfall in financing an incremental national budget.
In the current fiscal year, the NBR will have to pull in Tk 4.30 trillion in tax revenues on account of VAT, income tax and customs duties.
The value-added tax (VAT) wing collected Tk 400.48 billion while income-tax wing Tk 312.59 billion in the July-October period.
However, target for the wings were Tk 433.64 billion and Tk 360.62 billion respectively.
The revenue-collectors collected Tk 326.68 billion worth of customs duty against its target at Tk 368.68 billion.
Economists see the tax-collection growth "satisfactory until October despite economic turmoil", but expressed concern about keeping the pace on the growth track in the months ahead.
"The import of capital machinery, intermediate goods has been on a decline, due to its compression, which may affect domestic revenue mobilisation later," says Dr Md Abdur Razzaque, Chairman of Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID).
He thinks it is difficult to maintain higher growth amid "economic slowdown" in a country.
He notes that revenue-collection growth should be higher than nominal growth of GDP, inflation, which is 15 per cent until now.
The development researcher suggests expansion of tax net to cover growth centres, monitoring VAT collection through Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFD), automating tax department and casting focus on ensuring taxpayer-friendly environment.
He would rate the 14-percent growth in tax collection as moderate in the current economic context which proved the result of NBR's extra effort to realise taxes.
Devaluation of taka is another cause of revenue-collection growth as importers have to pay duty-taxes in local currency.
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