The National Board of Revenue has collected a total of Tk 2.22 lakh crore in the 2018-19 financial year. The revenue board, as per this estimation, registered 7.76 percent growth in collection over that in the corresponding year. The central tax authority in the FY18 could collect Tk 206,407 crore and achieved a 20.24 percent growth on a year-on-year basis.
The growth in revenue collection in fiscal 2016-17 was 11.74 percent, 13.21 percent in 2015-16, and 12.32 percent in 2014-15. According to provisional data, the exchequer incurred Tk 58,000 crore as shortfall in FY19 against its revised target of Tk 280,063 crore. However, tax officials believe that the conclusive growth after finalizing all tax receipts might stand at 9 percent.
“We get the figure with a provisional estimation as all the VAT commissionerates could not yet submit their conclusive collection immediately after ending of the fiscal,” a senior NBR official told Bangladesh Post adding that the collection would increase after receipt of concluded receipts. In the FY19, the VAT wing of NBR could collect the highest amount of Tk 85,600 crore, followed by Tk 72,300 crore by income tax and Tk 64,100 by customs wing.
As per this estimation, the VAT wing contributed 40 percent to the total collection. In the revised target, the collection target for VAT wing was Tk 104,006 crore, Tk 96,632 for income tax, and Tk 79,425 crore for customs. The initial revenue collection target for the FY19 was at Tk 296,201 crore. Of the amount, the VAT wing was targeted to collect Tk 110,000 crore, income tax Tk 102,201 crore, and customs to collect Tk 84,000 crore.
However, the government following the huge shortfall incurred by NBR, slashed the target by Tk 16,000 crore. But the exchequer also registered huge shortfall against the revised target. NBR officials said, the large-scale tax exemptions from some big sectors and lower import of revenue generating products are reasons behind the tremendous shortfall. The NBR is set to collect a total of Tk 325,600 crore in the fiscal 2019-20, and the board, to manage this amount, will have to secure 46 percent collection growth more than that in the immediate past fiscal.