The government is considering revising further the tax collection target for the current fiscal year (FY2019-20) in view of the impact of coronavirus pandemic on the economy.

The ministry of finance had earlier slashed the target by Tk 250 billion for the current fiscal year after sluggish economic activities.

The tax revenue collection target for the National Board of Revenue, or NBR, has been set at Tk 3.0 trillion, down from the original goal of Tk 3.25 trillion for ongoing FY.

Talking to the FE on Tuesday, a senior official of the ministry of finance said the target for internal revenue collection might be cut further considering the effects of COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have yet to finalise the extent of second revision of the revenue collection target. The ministry is currently working on it,” he said.

Sources said the ministry of finance has recently informed the NBR about the possibility of yet another cut in the revenue collection target.

Due to general holiday and the resultant lockdown until April 25, the NBR has yet to finalise what will be the revised targets for its three wings–income tax, customs and VAT.

They said the target for three wings would be revised downward proportionately as per its share in the total revenue collection.

VAT contributes 37.8 per cent of the combined tax revenue, followed by income tax of 35 per cent, supplementary duty at 14.8 per cent and import duty 11.2 per cent.

Officials said the tax revenue collection would see a major downtrend this year due to the potential economic meltdown, triggered by COVID-19.

Already, the NBR has faced a shortfall of Tk 454.08 billion against its tax collection target in the first eight months of the current fiscal.

In July-February period, the NBR collected Tk1.44 trillion tax revenue against its target for Tk 1.89 trillion.

According to the latest revision, the NBR will have to collect revenue worth Tk 1.55 trillion between March and June to achieve the target.

Tax officials said it would be difficult to meet even the revised target in the present situation since lockdown has brought economic activities of the country to a standstill while disrupting trade with rest of the world.

doulot_akter@yahoo.com