Al Amin :
Revenue collection grew 14.31 per cent, year on year, in the last eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal year, riding on customs duty.
The National Board o Revenue (NBR) achieved 87.50 per cent of its target of Tk 1,99,985 crore in the eight months thanks to hefty growth in import-stage revenues to compensate for a bit subdued economic activity in recovery stage.
Rising in global commodity prices-in economic fallout from production and supply-chain disruptions by the Covid-19 pandemic-helped the revenue collector like a blessing in disguise in collecting higher taxes from imports. The customs wing of the revenue board achieved 22.65 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the last year followed by income tax 13.61 per cent during the aforesaid time, according to a provisional data.
However, the final data of Value-Added Tax (VAT) collection is yet to be finalized as the businesses will submit their VAT returns till March 15.
As per the provisional data, the VAT wing achieved 8.44 per cent growth that would go up after the return submission deadline, NBR officials hoped.
The NBR collected Tk 56,709.48 crore from Customs wing, Tk 6,504.62 crore from VAT and Tk 53,221.31 crore from income tax in the July-February period.
However, the customs wing faced a Tk 6,639.28 crore shortfall against its target followed by the VAT wing Tk 11,752.38 crore and income tax Tk 6,615.69 crore during this time.
The government has set a Tk 3,30,000 target for the NBR for the current fiscal year and the target for the eight months was Tk 1,99,985.76 crore.
According to data of the research and statistics wing of the NBR, average revenue-collection growth was above 11 per cent in the last five years.
Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute (PRI), finds the 14-per cent growth a normal or ordinary in respect to growth in import and overall economic rebound.
He said the trend shows that revenue collection may not reach the target by the yearend.
He thinks automated system can ensure transparency in tax system and reduce underhand dealings for tax evasion.
The NBR achieved 7.39-per cent and 6.39-per cent growth in revenue collection in corresponding period last two years respectively.
The tax collection would go up this year compared to last fiscal year as financial health of large corporate houses is impressive, NBR officials said.
The tax official noted that many of the corporate taxpayers refrained from depositing the source taxes that they deducted from the taxpayers.
“There is a misconception over automatic collection of source taxes without any effort of tax officials, which is completely wrong and discouraging for us,” the officials said.
