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The National Board of Revenue has been struggling for years to meet its revenue targets.
NBR officials said that the reasons were limited resource crisis including lack of skilled manpower and absence of cooperation with other stakeholders.
Tax collection by the National Board of Revenue fell 8.59 per cent or Tk 28,357 crore short of the actual target set for the July-June period of the previous financial year 2021-22, according to NBR.
In FY22, the NBR managed to collect the highest ever tax of Tk 3,01,643 crore against its initial target of Tk 3,30,000 crore set for the period.
In FY 2021-22, direct tax revenue collection shortfall was 1.60 per cent or Tk 1,683 crore against the target of Tk 1,05,475 crore.
The government had set a direct tax revenue target for FY23 of Tk 1,22,100 crore which is 15.76 per cent or Tk 16,625 crore higher than FY22 target.
The income tax revenue earnings in July and August of the current fiscal year have shortfall of about 13 per cent as the authority managed to collect Tk 10,373.89 crore against the target of Tk 11,990 crore for the period.
NBR officials suggested that the government provide facilities for skill development of newly appointed revenue officials as a number of civil service cadres including other officials come from different educational backgrounds.
They told New Age that for ensuring global standard tax culture practices, the government should arrange facilities for the NBR officials like seminars for exchanging knowledge with foreign experts at home and abroad.
Besides, the government should increase the budget allocation for the revenue authority so that revenue officials can work freely to boost the revenue earnings.
However, to meet the revenue earnings target for the current financial year 2022-23, the NBR has strengthened its income tax survey, inspection and monitoring capacity.
NBR first secretary on tax policy and rule Md Shahidul Islam thanked the government’s policy action that made it mandatory to submit return submission documents for receiving at least 42 government services to boost the direct tax revenue.
‘To boost the confidence of the field officials, the NBR offers a cash incentive facility for the revenue officials based on their achievement on revenue earnings,’ he added.
Former NBR chairman Muhammad Abdul Majid said that the revenue collection target for the NBR was challenging due to its limited resources.
He said, ‘Government should spend more on facilities for the NBR as a big portion of budgetary expenditure comes from the NBR.’
It is time for the government to focus on soft development of the revenue authority, he said.
Regarding the income tax revenue earning target for the current fiscal year, Majid was hopeful that NBR would easily meet the target if it promoted the 50 per cent tax return compliance.
The government should reform policy and ensure a proper enforcement of the existing policy to increase the number of TIN holders to three crores, he said.
He also stressed enhancing the quality of NBR’s digital services.
Of the 62.77 lakh TIN holders, only 22.99 lakh submitted their returns within the deadline in the financial year 2021-22.
The existing number of TIN holders in the country stood at 78.05 lakh as of August.
(NA)
