Chattogram Customs House has collected Tk 61,464.72 crore as revenue in the outgoing fiscal year 2022-23, but it has failed to achieve the target set by the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
NBR set a revenue collection target of Tk 74,206 crore for Chattogram Customs House, which clears more than 90 per cent of the country's total imports and exports. But the revenue collection fell short of target by 17.17 per cent.
As compared to other fiscal years, this year’s collection was the highest in the history of Chattogram Customs House.
Earlier in FY21, the customs house had collected Tk 51,576 crore as revenue against the target of Tk 64,303 crore. However, it could never collect revenue more than Tk 50,000 crore in previous years.
CCH earned Tk 59,159.83 crore in FY22 with the revenue target set at Tk 64,075 crore.
Chattogram Customs House could not maintain its revenue collection growth at the end, even though it started the year with more than 40 per cent growth. The revenue collection was Tk 4,781 crore in July of the last fiscal year against the target of Tk 4,482 crore. It saw 6.68 per cent growth in that month compared to the target. As compared to the previous fiscal year, the growth was 40.87 per cent.
Due to the ongoing dollar crisis in Bangladesh, when the government took austerity measures, the commercial banks reduced the number of LCs following the directive of Bangladesh Bank which, in turn, reduced the volume of imports that can be seen in the Bill of Entry (BL) submissions of the country's largest customs station in the just-concluded fiscal.
In the outgoing fiscal year, the customs house's clearings decreased by 2,68,736 BLs compared to the previous financial year. However, revenue collection increased by Tk 2,305 crore as compared to the previous fiscal.
According to customs officials, as per Bangladesh Bank's instructions, the banks could not open letters of credit as before due to import restrictions on various types of goods, including luxury goods resulting in the reduction of the amount of BLs. According to the BL submissions of Chattogram Customs House for the last two years, some 25,96,748 BLs were submitted in FY22 and 23,28,012 BLs in FY23.
In August, Chattogram Customs House earned Tk 10,279.69 crore worth of revenue against Tk 10,143 crore target with a 31.72 per cent growth compared to the same period in the previous fiscal.
The growth was 19.09 per cent in September, 15.02 per cent in October, 14.83 per cent in November, 10.58 per cent in December, 8.28 per cent in January, 4.73 per cent in February, 3.57 per cent in March, 1.52 per cent in April, 3.65 per cent in May and 3.90 per cent in June.
Chattogram Customs House Commissioner Faizur Rahman told The Business Post, “We are facing the global economic crisis due to Russia-Ukraine war after the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, the number of LCs has decreased compared to earlier due to the dollar crisis and import restrictions on various types of goods, including luxury goods following Bangladesh Bank’s directives.”
“Also, high-taxable products have been imported less than before and combined with the import of low-duty goods such as coal, stone etc, reducing the total revenue collection. Besides, Petrobangla owes CHH Tk 10,700 crore against LNG imports. If we can collect arrears, our growth rate would have been 22 per cent. Petrobangla paid Tk 1,800 crore in dues in the previous fiscal year, but no sum of money was received this year,” he added.
