CCH just misses revenue target for last fiscal

CHITTAGONG, June 2: The Chittagong Customs House (CCH), the largest revenue earner in the country, has failed to achieve its revenue collection target for the last fiscal year (FY).

The failure to achieve the target was largely attributed to the political instability in late 2013 before the last general election.

The CCH earned revenue to the tune of Tk 232.1622 billion in the FY 2013-14 against the target of Tk 233.50 billion set by the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

The target was again revised upward by the concerned authority to Tk 244.13 billion on June 1, 2014, a senior official at the CCH said.

The earnings from the Shah Amanat International Airport Customs and Air Freight unit in the last fiscal was Tk 320 million with the Air Freight unit earning around Tk 250 million and the Airport Customs Tk 70 million.

Of the revenue earned by the CCH, the CD (Custom Duty) realised against imports through the Chittagong Port accounted for Tk 86.66 billion, SD (Supplementary Duty) Tk 26.89 billion and RD (Regulatory Duty) Tk 6.78 billion.

Asked about the reason for the failure to achieve the target, CCH Additional Commissioner Suresh Chandra Biswas said that the political movement steered by the opposition BNP-Jamaat before the last January 5 general election slowed down the operational activities at the major seaport. It severely hampered export, import and revenue income of the CCH.

Despite the adversities the authority was satisfied with the revenue earnings of the CCH, he added.

Besides, a good number of cases filed by importers against the CCH, over duty structure, tax dodging attempts by organised gangs, reduction of duty and surcharges by the authority on different import items and rigid stand of the CCH officials against imports under false declaration also hampered the revenue collection process, he said.