DHAKA: Government revenue receipts in July-November period amounted to Tk639.20 billion, 8.11 per cent short of the target for the period by official count.
The target was Tk 695.64 billion for this period of first five months of the current financial year (FY), 2016-17. The shortfall is worth Tk 56.43 billion or 8.11 per cent.
However, compared to the matching period of the last fiscal, the July-November collection was Tk 90 billion higher that accounts for a 16.51 per cent growth. The five-month tally comes to nearly 32 per cent of the annual target of revenue worth Tk 2.03 trillion the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is chasing in FY 2016-17.
According to an analysis, the NBR had posted an average revenue-collection growth in that period at 14.43 per cent during the last five years.
Of the three wings of the revenue board, income-tax department achieved 15 per cent growth in revenue collection but missed its set target for the July-November period.
The income-tax wing collected Tk187.82 billion against its target of Tk 215.84 billion for the five months. VAT wing posted 16 per cent growth, and also missed the target by Tk21.04 billion.
Customs department achieved the highest 18 per cent growth although it, too, failed to catch up with the lofted target. Tax officials appeared hopeful about their being able finally to get to the aggregate annual goal for FY 2016-17 as revenue collection usually picks up in the second half of a tax year.
“Implementation of government’s development works, corporate tax payment by large taxpayers, including commercial banks, telecoms companies and advance tax on import stages, would contribute a significant amount in January-June period,” said one official.
In the budget for FY 2016-17, VAT-collection target has been set at Tk741.14 billion, income tax Tk733.68 billion and customs duty Tk556.70 billion.
All of the goals are substantially raised to finance an ‘ambitious’ national budget worth over three-trillion taka estimated by the government for financing a recipe geared towards graduation of Bangladesh to a middle-income country.
