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National Board of Revenue (NBR) is unlikely to revise its revenue collection target of Tk 3.3 trillion this fiscal year as the business activities return to normalcy and the exports see a jump.
However, the fears of coronavirus breakout do not completely go away. The economy still reels from pandemic shocks and faces new blow of the Russia-Ukraine war.
In the recent years, especially during the last two years marred by the pandemic, the revenue targets were cut down in the revised budgets.
But in the current fiscal year 2021-22, the original target is not going to see changes in the upcoming revised budget, according to a report of Internal Resources Division (IRD).
The government had also set the same Tk 3.30 trillion tax revenue target in the FY2020-21, but the collection eventually stood at Tk 2,637.30 billion.
“Total revenue collection has increased after the rise in local business activities and imports. Import duty, Value Added Tax (VAT) and income tax increased amid the pandemic,” said an NBR official requesting anonymity.
Besides, the NBR expects a sizeable portion of revenues from Google, Amazon and Facebook and e-commerce platforms after introduction of automated service.
Meanwhile, customs, excise and VAT appellate tribunal has been made dynamic and more strong, which is expected to yield results as the move has made disposal of cases faster.
The total number of Vat-related lawsuits at the tribunal stood at 902 at the end of February while 501 cases were disposed of in the month, official data showed.
Similarly, the case disposal at taxes appellate tribunal has increased. There is also a rise in the settlement of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). The large companies have turned to ADR for settling VAT disputes.
In view of this, the government is setting the revenue collection high at Tk 3,745.44 billion in FY2022-23, which will be 8.5 percent of GDP.
During the first eight months from July to February, NBR collected Tk 1,764.58 billion which is 53.47 percent of the total target. Until February, NBR had a target to collect Tk 1,999.50 billion.
Even though the collection was below the target, it was 15.28 percent higher than that collected during the same period a year earlier.
NBR data showed that the highest tax collection was Tk 663.74 billion with 10.65 percent year-on-year increase. Import duty collection surged 22.79 percent to Tk 567.76 billion.
Income tax collection, on the other hand, rose 13.28 percent year-on-year to Tk 528.54 billion. Travel tax collection rose by 141 percent to Tk 4.54 billion.
Global economy has seen a further slowdown after the start of Russia-Ukraine war. However, Bangladesh’s businesses and trades are still okay with positive trends both in exports and imports.
New investments have also increased while credit flow in the private sector has surged as well. In these circumstances, NBR is hopeful of reaching its revenue collection target.
(DS)
