Tax receipts keep upward trend
Revenue collection in Bangladesh grew at a decent pace of 15 per cent in the first five months of the current fiscal year as business activities turned around from the slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) generated Tk 100,267 crore between July and November, against Tk 87,194 crore during the same period last year.
Customs duties surged 22.56 per cent to Tk 33,964 crore in July to November, driven by tax incomes from the rising imports of capital machinery, accessories, and cars during the period, provisional data from the NBR showed.
The receipts from value-added tax (VAT) were Tk 36,604 crore, up 9.44 per cent
year-on-year.
Income and travel taxes fetched Tk 29,697 crore, an increase of 14.07 per cent, driven by higher tax payment last month as November 30 was the deadline for the submission of individual tax returns.
The government has set a Tk 330,000 crore revenue target for the NBR for FY22, up 9.63 per cent on FY21.
Customs duties will have to generate Tk 96,000 crore to help the NBR hit the target, while Tk 128,000 crore will have to come from the VAT portion and Tk 100,006 crore from income and travel tax portion.
NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem disclosed the figures at a media briefing at his office in Dhaka yesterday.
"The size of the development budget is increasing day by day. More money is needed to implement the increased budget," he said.
VAT is the largest source of revenue for the government in Bangladesh, so the field officers and employees of the VAT department are working tirelessly to attain the revenue target, he added.
The revenue administration has chalked out various programmes to observe the National VAT Day today and the National VAT Week from December 10 to 15, with the theme "Pay VAT Online, Take Part in Nation-building".
The NBR will organise seminars at its VAT offices on the occasion.
Bangladesh has one of the lowest tax to gross domestic product ratios in the world. And Muneem termed the tendency to evade VAT and tax as the main challenges facing revenue collection.
"The main challenge is to close this loophole. We are working to get rid of the legal gaps."
According to Muneem, at the current pace of revenue collection, the NBR would be very close to its revenue generation target by the end of the fiscal year.
Like previous years, the highest taxpaying individuals and firms will be recognised in the manufacturing, services, and business sectors today. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is expected to hand over the awards at a ceremony at the Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh in the capital.
Abdul Mannan Shikder, member for VAT implementation and IT, Md Masud Sadiq, member for VAT policy, Pradyut Kumar Sarkar, member for tax survey and inspection, Shaheen Akhter, member for tax administration and human resources management, and Md Abdul Majid, member for taxes appeal and exemption, were present at the briefing.