Shortfall
in revenue collection target by the National Board of Revenue swelled to Tk 2,968
crore in the first eight months of the current fiscal year 2014-2015 mainly due
to political unrest-hit sluggish economic activities in the country, officials
of the NBR said.
They
said that the ongoing continuous non-stop blockade and frequent hartals since
early January enforced by NBP-led opposition parties severely affected revenue
collection as domestic consumption fell drastically and overall economic
activities slowed down in the period.
According
to official statistics of the revenue board published on Monday, taxmen managed
to collect Tk 79,978 crore in July-February of the current financial year
against the collection target of Tk 82,946 crore for the period.
Despite
better performance in collection of customs duty, revenue earnings witnessed a
huge shortfall in the period mainly due to gloomy performance by the
value-added tax and income tax wings of the revenue board as both the wings
faced significant shortfall in the period.
In
July-February, VAT collection alone lagged behind the target by Tk 2,940 crore
as the receipts stood at Tk 30,734 crore against the target of Tk 33,675 crore
for the period, the data showed.
VAT
collection which mostly depends on domestic consumption of products and
services, and economic activities including production and investment were
severely affected in the period, causing such a significant shortfall in
collection in the period, the officials said.
The
situation will worsen if the political turmoil continues, they warned.
Income
tax collection also fell short by Tk 1,063 crore in the period on lower
collection of corporate tax and tax at sources on sluggish economic activities.
Collection
in customs duties, however, succeeded its target by around Tk 1,035 crore.
Taxmen
managed to collect Tk 25,466 crore in income tax including travel tax and other
direct taxes in July-February period of the fiscal year against the collection
target of Tk 26,529 crore.
Revenue
board collected Tk 23,777 crore in customs duties in the period against the
target of Tk 22,742 crore.
The
officials said that the revenue board would have to collect Tk 69,742 crore or
46.58 per cent of total target of Tk 1,49,720 crore for the entire fiscal year
in the remaining four months to achieve the goal.
They
said that achieving the revenue collection target would be totally impossible
task in the prevailing economic and political situation in the country.
Under
the circumstances, like previous year, the finance ministry may curtail the
target by a significant amount after getting proposal from the revenue board,
they said.
According
to the data, revenue collection grew by 16.42 per cent in July-February months
of the year compared with the same months of the last fiscal year when the NBR
had collected Tk 68,698 crore in income tax, customs duties and VAT.
Revenue
collection growth in the period also remained much behind the target for the
entire fiscal year which was set at 24 per cent.
According
to the data, income tax, customs duty and VAT collection grew by 17.76 per
cent, 12.91 per cent and 17.32 per cent respectively in the months compared
with the collection of the same months of last fiscal year. (Source: New Age, March
31, 2015)