Tax collection off to a slow start
The tax authority's ambitious collection target for the fiscal year started off on a dispiriting note, with a shortfall recorded in the opening month.
In July, the National Board of Revenue collected Tk 7,988 crore against the monthly target of Tk 9,053 crore, due to weak receipts from value-added tax and supplementary duty. The figure is 8.54 percent higher than a year ago.
VAT and supplementary duty collection at the local level stood at Tk 3,737 crore last month, which, although a year-on-year increase of 7.76 percent, fell short of July's target by Tk 606 crore.
Income tax raked in Tk 2,080 crore, which is an improvement of 10.09 percent over July 2013's collections.
At the import level, revenue collection stood at Tk 3,158 crore, which is a deficit of Tk 384 crore from the target but a growth of 7.76 percent over previous year.
However, NBR officials said the news of shortfall is nothing to be alarmed by, as collections typically flounder at the beginning of a fiscal year to gain momentum in the latter months.
In recent months, the engines of the economy have started to rev up along with imports, so revenue collections are bound to pick up, said another tax official.
Another reason for the slow start, he says, is that the rules to implement the new measures taken in this year's budget took some time to come by, so the NBR could not intensify its collection drive.
The NBR's collection target for fiscal 2014-15 is Tk 149,720 crore, which is 25 percent more than the previous year's receipts.
Some Tk 120,512 crore was collected in fiscal 2013-14 -- 3.59 percent lower than the target for the year.
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