NBR intensifying efforts to achieve revenue target

FE Team | Published: July 12, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Doulot Akter Mala
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is intensifying its efforts to achieve revenue target set for fiscal 2007-08 against the backdrop of repeated failure to reach the goal.
The NBR has been holding a series of meetings with the officials of Value Added Tax (VAT), Income tax and Customs to provide them specific guidelines and action plan for the fiscal.
The board will sit with Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam July 16 in a post-budget discussion.
The finance adviser will give directives to the taxmen to initiate effective move for achieving the revenue target in the fiscal, sources said.
While talking to the FE, NBR chairman Badiur Rahman said: "We held a meeting with the officials of VAT department today (Wednesday) to provide them specific guidelines to achieve fiscal target."
The NBR will hold meeting with the Income Tax Department Thursday (today).
The departments have been asked to give their action plan on revenue collection by this month.
"We have taken a number of steps to achieve the revenue target set for the fiscal, which include continuation of the ongoing campaign to identify new tax payers, incentives to the taxmen for encouraging higher tax collection and reward as well as punitive actions against large tax evaders," the NBR chief said.
Expressing satisfaction over the revenue collection of the past fiscal, he said the board was able to collect 99 per cent of its revised revenue target.
According to data received until Wednesday, in fiscal 2006-07 the revenue collection reached Tk 371.05 billion against the target of Tk 374.79 billion.
The revenue shortfall is a meagre Tk 3.73 billion in the immediate past fiscal although the government had slashed import duties on a number of products, the NBR chairman said.
He said the shortfall might further narrow for the fiscal after all revenue collection data are available from the VAT and other departments.
"We have a huge amount of revenue stuck up due to filing of writ petitions by the taxpayers," he said.
The government has set revenue target of Tk 438.50 billion for the current fiscal.
The tax revenue target was set at Tk 410.55 billion in the original budget for the fiscal 2006-07, which was revised to Tk 374.79 billion.