Revenue earning drops significantly in January

Al Amin :
Overall revenue collection by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has dropped significantly in January due to slower export-import activities and fall in consumption capacity of the people.
Specially, the earnings from the customs wing of the revenue board dropped drastically compared to the same period of the last year as the businesses have been failing to open letters of credit (LCs) since last June due to dollar crisis.
The NBR registered a negative 0.53 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue earnings from the custom wing in the aforesaid month, according to a provisional data of the revenue board.
The revenue earnings from customs was Tk 7494.32 crore against the monthly target of Tk 9476 crore, which was Tk 7534.46 crore registering 23 per cent year-on-year growth in the same period of the last year, the data showed.
The overall revenue collection is Tk 26,877.68 crore against the monthly target of Tk 31,486.46 crore registering 4.90 per cent year-on-year growth.
The NBR fetched Tk 25,610.98 crore registering 18 per cent year-on-year growth in the same month of the last year.
Experts apprehended that the tax authority may face challenges to meet the condition of the International Monitory Fund (IMF), if the down trend in tax revenue collection continues.
As per the IMF condition, the revenue collection must be above Tk 3.46 lakh crore in the current fiscal year (2022-23). Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of the
Policy Research Institute (PRI), Bangladesh, told The New Nation, “Drop in import activities due to dollar crisis, tax exemption on some imported goods and fall in consumption capacity of the country’s people are the main reasons behind the decrease in revenue collection.”
“The slower trend in revenue collection may continue till April this year as the dollar crisis is still going on. If that happen, the NBR surely face challenge to meet the IMF’s condition,” he added.
“The drastic fall in revenue collection is also reflecting the slowed down economic situation of the country whatever the government said,” Mansur said.
The earnings from Value-Added Tax (VAT) wing of the NBR was Tk 10764.53 crore with 11.19 per cent year-on-year growth in January, the first month of this calendar year.
The NBR earned Tk 9681.54 crore registering 9 percent growth from the sector in the same month of last year.
Meanwhile, the revenue collection from income tax and travel tax wing was Tk 8618.83 crore with 2.54 per cent in the 7th month of the current fiscal year.
The NBR earned Tk 8408.98 crore registering a 28 per cent year-on-year growth in the same period of last year.
Dr Zahid Hussain, former lead economist of the World Bank Dhaka office, said, “The decline in revenue collection is mainly for slower economic activities in the country as the people’s consumption capacity has decreased significantly.”
NBR may face difficulties to meet the IMF’s condition, if the situation does not improve, he added.