The revenue board has managed to collect Tk 30 billion more for the public exchequer in the last fiscal year, reducing the extent of shortfall it suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has collected Tk 2.18 trillion against its revised target of Tk 3.0 trillion for FY 2019-20, according to data released on Monday.

Analysing the data, it has been found that Tk 30 billion more was collected than that of the aggregate tax revenue collection which was revealed in the first week of July by some unofficial sources.

As of July 7, it was reported that the NBR collected Tk 2.15 trillion in tax revenue facing a 3.79 per cent negative growth in the last FY compared to that of the previous FY.

However, the latest data of the research and statistics wing, though provisional, of NBR also pointed out 2.26 per cent negative growth in revenue collection in the FY 2019-20.

The NBR also lagged behind its revised target by 27.32 per cent.

A senior NBR official said that the NBR received a significant amount of VAT and other withholding tax after 5th of a month that contributed to the additional revenue.

He said the ambitious target for revenue collection and COVID-hit economic activity are the main reasons for the huge shortfall in revenue collection.

In the month of June, the NBR collected Tk 298.90 billion in tax revenue against its target of Tk 357.32 billion, facing a Tk 58.42 billion shortfall.

However, the revenue collection faced a negative 1.22 per cent growth in the month of June.

In the month of June last year, the NBR collected Tk 302.58 billion in tax revenue.

Of the three wings, the customs wing lagged behind its revised target by 28.95 per cent, followed by VAT wing by 21.87 per cent and income tax by 31.57 per cent.

The customs wing posted a negative 4.46 per cent growth, followed by VAT 2.67 per cent. But the income tax wing achieved 0.14 per cent growth.

Last year, the board collected tax revenue worth Tk 2.23 trillion from the domestic sources as tax revenue.

Officials said the tax collection may go up slightly after reconciliation of data with the officials of the AG office under the ministry of finance.

Since independence, the NBR faced the negative growth in revenue collection for the first time.

According to the recently released data, VAT wing collected Tk 848.49 billion, followed by income tax Tk 730.04 billion and customs Tk 605.52 billion.

The shortfall against the target was Tk 246.68 billion for customs wing, Tk 237.50 billion for VAT wing and Tk 336.74 billion for income tax wing.

The original tax revenue collection target was Tk 3.25 trillion in the FY 2019-20 that was revised to Tk 3.0 trillion.

The NBR’s target for current FY has been set at Tk 3.30 trillion.

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