Business Desk :
The government is unlikely to achieve its tax revenue collection target for the ongoing FY23 as mobilization pace remained slow until April thanks to sluggish economic trends.
Collection growth remained below the last five years average growth 12% in FY23 as import of products fell with restrictive measures of the government amid dollar crisis.
Import declined by 12.33% in the July-March period over the corresponding period last year, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
Earlier, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) projected a possible shortfall in tax revenue collection of Tk75,000 crore in FY23.
Domestic tax revenue collection faced a shortfall worth Tk37,533 billion until April against its target.
In the first 10 months, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) achieved 5.90% growth over the same period last year, disclosed the NBR’s provisional data.
Officials said the data might be presented to the prime minister at a budget meeting with officials of the Finance Ministry, NBR and other relevant wings on Wednesday.
The NBR collected Tk247,000 crore tax revenue during the July-April period against its target for Tk284,000 crore.
It will have to collect Tk122,000 crore revenue in May and June, Tk61,303 crore per month, to achieve the Tk370,000 crore target set for this year.
Value-added tax (VAT) collection grew by 12% from July to April followed by income tax 3.15% and import taxes 1.68%, revealed the data.
Income tax wing collected Tk78,058 crore from domestic sources against its target for Tk83,428 crore.
Meanwhile, the VAT wing collected Tk95,103 crore against the Tk108,000 crore target.
On the other hand, the customs wing collected Tk74,230 crore against its target of Tk93,347 crore.