Al Amin :
Travel tax collection grew by 141 per cent in July-February of the current fiscal year (2021-22), as the number of outgoing passengers has increased significantly in recent time.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) earned Tk 453.94 crore during the last eight months of this fiscal year, which was Tk 188.42 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, according to provisional data.
The tax officials said that different countries had imposed ban on travelling since the beginning of the ongoing pandemic, for which d the revenue earnings had dropped during that time.
But, the number of outbound passengers, especially for business and treatment purpose, has soared tremendously after the lifting of the ban on travelling, which helped swell up the revenue growth, they said.
Besides, several teams have been made to monitor closely in order to verify tax deduction and deposition properly so that no airline agents can evade taxes. This is also another reason behind the revenue growth, the officials said. On the other hand, the country’s tourism industry is recovering from the negative impact of the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, which has had a positive impact on the travel tax collection.
A study of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), revealed on Sunday, showed that the country’s Hotel and Tourism sector incurred losses worth Tk 60,000 crore due to the Covid-19 pandemic and some 1.41 lakh people have lost their jobs in the sector.
Of the losses, 40 per cent is in transport, 29 per cent in hotel, and 25 per cent in resort and restaurant sector, the study said.
The revenue board collected worth Tk 92.70 crore in February this year alone, which was Tk 47.57 in February of the last year.
The total target for the current fiscal year is Tk 1,529.90 crore.
The travel tax collection from air passengers is now automated, air travel tax would also be come under the NBR’s automation system in the next phase to ensure transparency and accountability, officials said.
Outgoing international passengers have to pay travel tax ranging between Tk 500 and Tk 800 in case of travelling by land and water routes respectively.
On the other hand, air passengers have to pay between Tk 800 and Tk 2,500 as travel tax based on their destinations.
According to the NBR data, travel tax collection from outgoing international passengers was Tk 1,104 crore in fiscal year 2018-2019.
Of the travel tax collected, passengers travelling by land contribute to only around 12 per cent while the remaining 88 per cent comes from air passengers as the rate of travel tax is higher by several times for those travelling by air.
The NBR collected Tk 120 crore from 24 lakh land passengers, who mostly visited India, in fiscal year 2019-20.
