NBR revenue hits 13.87% growth in FY22

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) collected Tk3, 00,500 crore in the last FY2021-22 hitting 13.87 per cent growth over the previous fiscal year.

However, revenue income still lagged behind Tk29, 500 crore in the FY 2021-22 by attaining 91.06 per cent of its target of Tk3, 30,000 crore, according to a provisional data until Sunday.

Industrial production stability after Covid-19 challenges and a sort of different mobilizations introduced by revenue administration, including automation tax deducted at source and ensuring accountability at VAT collection along with policy supports to make VAT affordable, reducing haphazard tax payment, tax enhancing and tax inclusion helped grow revenue collection, said NBR officials.

Economist says without revenue mobilization with sustainable policy making and development of tax administration the country cannot be beneficiary in the long run in this dwindling situation of the economy.

In the previous financial year, the board collected Tk1, 08,600.03 crore out of the total revenue from VAT, including VAT at local stage, supplementary duty at local stage and turnover tax etc. followed byTk1, 02,400 crore at direct tax including income tax, travel tax and Tk89, 500.12 crore at import stage including import duty, VAT at import, supplementary duty at import and export duty.

Meanwhile, the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU), VAT has begged the lion’s share of the revenue as single unit with Tk53,525 crore at 8.68 per cent growth compared to FY 2020-21 as it collected Tk49,251.

The LTU VAT has crossed the milestone of Tk50, 000 crore for the first time in the history of the country. At the same time it earned around Tk4, 200 crore in just a single month of June in the last fiscal with around 25 per cent growth.

The targets for the three wings were Tk1.28 lakh crore, Tk1.05 lakh crore and Tk95.65 thousand crore respectively in the FY22 while LTU VAT was Tk64,038 crore.

The revenue officials said finally the revenue collection growth rate might change positively in the last fiscal. However, the revenue body in the financial year of 2020-21 collected Tk 2, 63,886 crore.

The revenue body collected Tk2,16,452 crore in the FY 2019-20 while it earned Tk2,20,772 crore in the FY2018-19 and Tk2,02,313 crore in the FY2017-19.

The target was fixed on the basis of high desire and it was unrealistic to touch the actual target. So at first the country has to fix the rational target to achieve it, former World Bank Dhaka office chief economist Zahid Hussain said on the shortfall in revenue.

To get more benefit from the revenue section, the revenue administration has to reduce policy discrimination making simplification of the definition of single product rather than different rules and rates for the same product, he added.

The policy discrimination causes more revenue loss which cannot be earned through other ways even if the body provides facilities and waiver to encourage tax payers, he included.

The duty at different levels for the same product does not increase taxpayers and revenue. He also poured cold water on such an optimistic growth of the revenue as tariff collection increases due to rising import costs.

He says it brings more revenue but it is not helpful for the economy as the import loses foreign currency reserve.

According to the latest data released by the Bangladesh Bank, imports increased by 46.15 per cent in the previous fiscal year.

The revenue data showed that the highest revenue growth in the first 11 months was also in the collection of duty and VAT at import stage, which is mainly levied on imported goods.