Revenue collection from most of custom houses at land port, sea port and airport has fallen drastically following coronavirus panic across the world, National Board of Revenue (NBR) officials said.
They said revenue earnings has mainly decreased for disturbing supply chain globally caused by coronavirus, which has negatively affected export and import of all kind goods from China.
NBR officials said the country’s export-import from China has significantly been reduced due to coronavirus which has impacted on revenue collection.
Hopefully, the collection will be reached at satisfactory level at the end of the fiscal year, they added.
However, this could not get affected in revenue collection from Kamalapur Inland Container Depot (ICD), which has fulfilled its target.
The ICD’s revenue increased during the time for rising in the import of industrial raw materials and motor parts, an official source said.
The first eight months of the current fiscal year (FY20) witnessed a revenue shortfall of around Tk 150.56 billion against the target.
The NBR collected a total of Tk 394.17 billion in revenue in July-February period of FY20 against its target of Tk 544.73 billion.
World Bank’s former lead economist, Dr Zahid Hussain, told The Bangladesh Post that “The most of the country’s industrial raw materials and capital machinery is imported from China, and disruption of travel between the two countries would affect supply of raw materials to the export sector, which has been showing falling trend in revenue collection.”
“Many consumer products, both cheap and expensive, are imported from China; and a prolonged outbreak would surely have a negative impact on the supply of these consumer products to the local market,” he mentioned.
Thus, it will be a mistake to underestimate the impact of disrupted imports of intermediate inputs and capital machinery on production, trade and investment in Bangladesh, he added.
“The coronavirus outbreak is already having significant economic impacts globally, he said adding that “Bangladesh should diversify export and import partners and funding sources beyond China to avoid negative impact.”
The commerce ministry sources said, “We import lots of things from China, including raw materials for the readymade garment sector.”
Bangladesh imported from China products worth $13.63 billion, or 26.1 percent of the total $52.1 billion imports, in 2018–19 ending in June last, they added.
Khandaker Golam Moazzem, Research Director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), told media that “National Board of Revenue (NBR) is still lagging far behind in collecting revenues. There might have some progress due to new leadership of the board. But, the board should pay attention to technical reforms.”
People expect a good growth in revenue collection from the new leadership of the board, he added.
However, revenue collection at Kamalapur ICD was almost Tk 70 crore higher than the strategic target and the custom house earned Tk 2,040 crore against the target of Tk 1970 crore set for the July-February of the FY20.
On the other hand, the Chattogram Custom House has collected revenue of Tk 29,044 crore, although strategic target was Tk 40,757 crore during the set period. The revenue collection deficit of the house is around Tk 11,713 crore.
Revenue collection at Benapole Custom House has also been reduced. The strategic target of the house was Tk 3,968 crore but the house collects Tk 2,173 crore in the first eight months, showing a deficit of Tk 1795 crore.
Meanwhile, strategic target of revenue collection at Dhaka Custom, one of the major custom houses in the country, was Tk 3,485 crore but it earned Tk2,861 crore revenue during the period under review and the deficit stood at Tk 624 crore.
Strategic target of the revenue collection at Mongla Custom House was Tk 3,363 crore but it collected Tk 2,338 crore, leaving a deficit of Tk 1024 crore. Pangaon Custom House collected Tk 525 crore, although the target was Tk 930 crore in the eight months.