Ctg Customs House fails to achieve revenue target by 19pc in July-Feb FY23

Staff Reporter :
The Chattogram Customs House, the largest revenue station of Bangladesh, could not achieve the revenue collection target in first eight months from July to February of the current financial year which is less by Tk 9,746 crore or around 19 percent than the target set by National Board of Revenue (NBR).
CHC collected Tk 39,220 crore in first eight months of FY23 and the target was to collect Tk 48, 967 crore. However, compared to the same period of the last fiscal year 2021-22, there has been an increase of 4.77 percent in revenue collection, the data said.
Experts said, as the import being reduced due to liquidity shortage (FX), LC opening crisis, import restriction on luxury goods, and global macroeconomic instability, the revenue collection significantly impacted and the revenue collection of CHC being decreased.
The revenue growth was 40.87 percent in July of FY 2022-23, which declined to 24.67 percent in August and -0.17 per cent in September. Afterwards, the growth increased to 3.91 per cent in October and 14.13 percent in November.
Revenue collection in CHC again dropped in the next two months. The growth was -9.18 percent in December and -4.38 per cent in January.
Md Bodruzzaman Munshi, deputy commissioner of CHC, said to the journalists that, the revenue collection in the current fiscal year has decreased compared to the previous year. Imports of low-duty products, especially food items and capital machinery have increased. But revenue collection has decreased due to decrease in imports of luxury goods including cars, cosmetics, electronics, which are items of high revenue collection, he added.
From the first month of FY23, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) imposed a hundred percent cash margin for opening letters of credit (LCs), on cars, electronics, gold, precious metals, RMG, and pearls, among other items, to discourage imports in a bid to keep the country’s foreign currency and debt management more integrated and stable which negatively impacted of revenue generation where the CHC hard most, an official of Chattogram Customs said.
Meanwhile, CHC collects duty on goods imported through Chattogram Port, which oversees 92% of the country’s import and export trade, and Shah Amanat International Airport of the port city.
For Custom House, Chattogram in FY23, NBR set revenue target of Tk74,206 crore. In the last fiscal year,the Chattogram Customs House collected Tk 59,159.83 crore against the target of Tk 64,159.83 crore, posting a growth of 14.7 per cent.