Staff Reporter :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is yet to be receive any directions for tax cut on fuel oil import, although many experts and economists have suggested doing it to release inflation pressure.
It also said offshore tax amnesty has been given to make it easier to bring legitimate money from abroad.
“No opportunity was given to bring black money from the country through this. Rather, it was given to bring legal money from abroad to reduce dollar crisis,” said NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem in a press briefing at it headquarter in the capital on Sunday.
Wrong interpretations are being given in this regard by various parties including the media, the NBR chief said.
The new step introduced in the budget, if money is brought to the country from abroad, no question will be asked about the source of that money.
Asked whether the existing tax on fuel oil will be reduced in the press conference, Muneem said that NBR has not yet received any instructions in this regard.
“This is a policy decision of the government, not of the NBR. Currently there is a duty tax of 34 per cent on the import of fuel oil. The rate is higher if VAT is imposed on supply level,” he added.
Expressing satisfaction over revenue collection growth, he said, “NBR collected revenue worth Tk3 lakh 1 thousand 633 crores with 16 per cent year on year growth. As such, there is a shortfall of Tk28,362 crore against the annual target of Tk 3,30,000.”
Through policy measures and tax incentives, NBR is encouraging ‘Made in Bangladesh’ along with the expansion of domestic industries and employment and This will be continued even if some particular sectors are getting 10 years tax holiday facility, he said.
Now, the revenue board earns 33 per cent of revenue from income tax, 38 per cent from Value Added Tax (VAT), and 28
per cent from import duty excise duty.
“We are planning to extent tax net and VAT collection areas along with monitoring its submission to the treasury,” the NBR chairman said.
He said that the country’s GDP size has become Tk444,999 crore in FY2022-23, a rise by 556 percent compared to Tk 797,538 crore in FY2009-10.
In FY 2010-11, the NBR’s revenue collection was Tk79,403 crore which now stands at around Tk 3.2 lakh crore. This jump in revenue earning contributed to implementing the annual development program (ADP). At the same time it helped cut dependency on foreign loans, he said.
At present, NBR is supporting 85 percent of the budget from internal resources. Both the ADP size and foreign dependency on ADP implementation came down over the years as the impact of people’s contribution to revenue, he said.
In FY2010-11 the size of ADP was Tk35,880 crore which now climbed to Tk 217,175 crore in FY 2021-22. Similarly, the contribution of revenue increased in ADP implementation and the ratio of foreign loans in the ADP implementation decreased, the NBR chief said.
