Revenues up, still falls short of target for July-August

Country’s revenue collection from last July to August has increased to 14.48 per cent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year though the revenue target is yet to be achieved.

Against the Tk 42,050.40 crore target, Tk 34,528.24 crore revenue has been collected in the first two months of the fiscal year 2021-22 with a shortfall of Tk 7522.16 crore.

The revenue collection went up amidst the ongoing pandemic as the field offices of the three wings of National Board of Revenue-VAT, income tax, Customs—have managed to collect Tk 34,528.24 crore during the period.

According to provisional data from the NBR, the collection faced a Tk 7522.16 crore shortfall against its target of Tk 42,050 crore in the month of August as the board achieved 82.11 per cent of its target.

The taxmen collected Tk 10,002.93 crore as income taxes till August this fiscal, up by 13.66 per cent year-on-year from Tk 8,800.63 crore of the previous year. The target was Tk 11,278.40 crore this year.

The customs wing of the NBR collected Tk 11,580.04 crore, with a 15.70 per cent growth, compared to the collection in the corresponding month of the fiscal year.

However, the target was Tk 15,412 crore, which also showed a shortfall of Tk 3,831.96 crore.

Though the VAT collection grew by 14.04 per cent in August of the current fiscal with a collection of Tk 12,945.27 crore against the target of Tk 15,360 crore. NBR also realised 84.28 per cent of its VAT collection target.

While talking to The Business Post, Dr Abdul Mannan Shikder, Member (VAT Implementation & IT), NBR said, “Although there is a shortfall in achieving our target, the revenue collection has, however, increased in the month of August as the NBR has taken several steps in this regard.’’

He also noted that revenue collection was slumped in July, this year, as all the business and other economic activities faced a serious setback following the government’s enforced lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the country. But collection has improved in the later month as the businesses gradually became as usual after the withdrawal of the lockdowns.

“Revenue earned in August has witnessed a decent growth as we have further strengthened our monitoring system. Besides, imports also increased in the same month. Consequently, NBR also saw a growth in

revenue collection as we have strongly monitored the overall trading as well as all the imports,” he added.

“Though we couldn’t achieve our target, we are still trying our level best to cover it up.”

Earlier in July, the first month of the fiscal year, revenue collection grew marginally owing to the slowdown in business activities in the face of the government’s restrictions to combat the coronavirus spread.

The NBR logged Tk 15,354 crore in revenue in July this fiscal year, up four per cent year-on-year from Tk 14,755 crore of the previous year.

According to the field-level tax officials, a significant part of revenue was lost owing to the lockdown, causing negative growth in VAT collection by 25 per cent in the month of July. However, the collection increased in all the three wings of NBR in August.

Bangladesh had been hamstrung under a strict lockdown from July 23 till August 10, 2021 when the pandemic Covid-19 took an alarming turn. Only export-oriented industries remained out of the purview of lockdown from August 1.

However, export-oriented industries are not considered revenue- generating because of their being exempted from paying taxes in many areas.

Production in the large manufacturing units remained suspended during the restrictions, affecting VAT collection, said the tax officials.