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After the first 10 months of the current financial year, the revenue collection of Chittagong Custom House is 22.12 per cent less than the target.
Due to dollar crisis in the country since the end of the last financial year, the government has adopted austerity measures to reduce the cost of imports, reducing the number of letters of credit (LCs) opened with the commercial banks by importers. As a result, the revenue income also decreased along with imports and expenditure.
Businessmen said that due to restriction on the import of various types of goods as per Bangladesh Bank directives, the business organisations are not able to open LCs as before. The number of LCs opened to import essential commodities and raw materials of export-oriented industries has also decreased.
Analysing the revenue income documents, it can be seen that the number of bills of entry filed against the import with Chittagong Custom House has gradually decreased in the current financial year. In the first month of the current fiscal year, 49,809 bills of entry were submitted. In the following month of August, 54,892 bills of entry were filed. Then in September, October and November 49,439, 49,393 and 49,677 bills of entry were filed respectively. After that, 42,600 bills of entry were filed in December and 46,072 in January. In February, it decreased again to 36,312. Then 45,705 and 45211 bills of entry were filed in March and April respectively.
Meanwhile, starting the financial year with more than 40 per cent revenue growth, Chittagong Custom House could not continue that trend at the end. At the beginning of the financial year, in July last, Tk 4,781 crore revenue was collected against a target of Tk 4,482 crore, securing 6.68 per cent growth in that month. Compared to the previous financial year, the growth rate was 40.87 per cent in that month. However, the growth rate started to decline from the following month.
In August, the revenue collection rate fell by 2.87 per cent as the custom house collected Tk 5,498 crore of revenue against a target of Tk 5,661 crore. However, compared to the previous financial year, the growth rate was 24.67 per cent.
The trend of growth decreased in September also when Tk 5,105 crore was collected against a target of Tk 6,652 crore. Compared to the fiscal year 2021-22, the growth rate was 0.17 per cent negative.
Then in the month of October, against a target of Tk 6,557 crore, the customs station collected Tk 4,911 crore. The growth rate was 24.99 per cent negative and compared to the previous year, the growth rate was only 3.91 per cent.
In November, Chittagong customs collected Tk 5,479 crore revenue against Tk 6,604 crore target, with the growth rate 17.03 per cent negative. The revenue in the month of December was Tk 4,388 crore. The revenue target for that month was Tk 6,604 crore. The growth rate was 33.55 per cent negative. In January, the revenue collection target was Tk 6,652 crore but the revenue collection was Tk 4,744 crore. The growth rate was 28.67 per cent negative. The revenue collection target for February was Tk 5,755 crore and Tk 4,287 crore was collected. The growth rate was 25.49 per cent negative. In March, the target was Tk 6,840 crore, and Tk 5,052 crore was collected. The growth rate was 26.13 per cent negative. In April last, the revenue collection target was Tk 6,840 crore, against which Tk 4,534 crore revenue was collected. The growth rate was 33.71 per cent negative.
The total revenue collection target for the financial year 2022-23 has been set at Tk 74,206 crore.
In this regard, Faizur Rahman, Commissioner of Chittagong Custom House, told The Business Post, “The amount of imports is decreasing as a result of the decreased number of LCs compared to earlier. At the same time, those products which used to be taxed at higher rates are also being imported less than before, ultimately reducing the amount of revenue collection. But we are trying to continue the flow of revenue being vigilant against all kinds of irregularities including false declaration.”
