The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is apprehended to fail for the second consecutive year to achieve even the revised revenue target.
The revenue fell short of the target by Tk3,644 crore in FY2012-13. In the previous three fiscal years, it exceeded the targets.
The revenue fell Tk34,296 crore short of the Tk125,000 crore revised target as in April this fiscal year, leaving only May and June to mobilise the resource for the fiscal year 2013-14, according to latest data from the revenue authorities.
During the last 10 months up to April, the NBR collected Tk90,704 crore – monthly average of little over Tk9,000 crore. That means, the revenue authorities would have to mobilise almost double the amount in the remaining two months than what they collected in one month.
The government had earlier revised down the revenue target from original allocation of Tk136,090 crore on apprehension that the target would not be achieved as the collection faced setback due to the political turmoil ahead of the national election held on January 5.
NBR officials consider it difficult to achieve the target despite they made strong efforts in the last month, which would turn desperate this month.
“We may come close to the target, yet it would fall short if not too much,” a senior official told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
The collection in May was not available as of yesterday, but the officials said it would be much higher than the average of previous 10 months and it would be even more this month.
NBR Chairman Md. Ghulam Hussain earlier on many occasions expressed confidence that the target would be achieved. He already put pressure on the field offices to expedite collection.
The NBR is now eyeing on unexplored avenues such as expanding the tax net, finding unexplored sectors, preventing loopholes in tax collection, finding tax evasion cases to reach the target.
“The shortfall would range between Tk7,000 crore and Tk8,000 crore eventually despite all usual last minute efforts by the NBR,” former NBR Chairman Mohammad Abdul Majid told the Dhaka Tribune, however.
According to the NBR data, the NBR lags behind Tk6,229 crore in customs duties up to April as it collected Tk26,641 crore against the target of Tk32,870 crore.
The Value Added Tax wing collected Tk34,388 crore against its target of Tk46,850crore and the income tax wing collected Tk29,182 crore against its target of Tk44,360 crore.
In the recent few months, the NBR has taken up initiatives to strictly monitor revenue collection drive for meeting the revenue target.
The NBR chairman earlier claimed the NBR would be able to achieve the target as the last two months of the fiscal (May and June) are the prime time for collection. “I, along with other NBR officials, have been running across the country to ensure revenue collection, and we will surely be able to achieve the target.”
For the current fiscal year, the revised revenue collection target is set at Tk32,870 crore as customs duties, Tk46,850 crore as VAT, Tk44,360 crore as income tax and Tk920 crore as other taxes.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
