Despite a 10.7 percent year-on-year revenue collection growth in the just concluded financial year (2018-19), the National Board of Revenue (NBR) registered a very poor growth during the period. The customs department in that fiscal, collected a total of Tk 63,382 crore, registering only 3 percent growth in comparison to that of in the previous fiscal.
The customs houses in this regard have made separate internal assessments on why the revenue collection growth in this regime declined so disastrously.
Benapole customs, the country’s second largest customs house, making an internal assessment report, has recently sent it to the NBR. There are now six customs houses in the country, the key authority of collecting the customs and other duties.
According to the report, the country’s largest land-port oriented customs house collected a total of Tk 4039 crore as revenue, securing only 0.43 percent year-on-year progress. The Benapole customs in its report has pointed out eight major reasons, along with other 8 other auxiliary reasons behind this extremely poor growth in revenue collection in the FY19.
According to the report, increase in the zero and lower duty based products, decrease of highly duty based products, lower import of some highly valued products and commercial goods were the key reasons behind the decline of revenue collection. In the report it has been said that the lower import of some pioneer items in the last fiscal, including stone, cement, and plastic goods hampered the revenue collection, as the customs authority previously collected huge revenue from these sectors.
Besides, the decline of import of many commercial goods or products, including rubber tyre, footwear, perfume, cosmetics, and motorcycle led the Benapole customs to collect at least Tk 108 crore less. Along with this, the import of many lower taxable goods increased in the FY19, another reason for the lower tax receipts, the report reads.
The customs house also pointed out eight other auxiliary causes including, traffic jams and deficiency in truck supply in the port area, limitations of the port, impact of SASES and SAFTA, non-tariff obstacles, and the impact of reforms in neighboring India’s monetary policy led the customs authority to collect lower revenue.
NBR Chairman, Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan on Wednesday at a press briefing said that the tax exemptions and rebates in many industrial and service sectors had lowered the overall revenue collection in the last financial year, crippling the collection growth in the last five years. The exchequer in the fiscal 2018-19 actually collected a total of Tk 2,23892 crore, up 10.7 percent in comparison with the previous fiscal.
While discussing about the overall poor performance of customs regime, he said there were several duty exemptions from some sectors, including capital machinery, baggage rules, mobile manufacturing, poultry, and relief goods, lowering the collection from the sector.