Government's revenue authority surpassed its revised target of revenue collection in the just-concluded fiscal year (FY 2016-17) by Tk 710 million, provisional figures show, circumventing some hurdles.
The revised target of tax-revenue collection in the fiscal year (FY) 2016-17 was Tk 1.850 trillion. Original target set for the National Board of Revenue (NBR) was Tk 2.03 trillion. Thus, the tax revenue earning during the just concluded fiscal year was Tk 179 billion short of the original target.
Board sources said despite several challenges and large sums of stuck-up revenue arrears, the board got to the goal in the end.
The revenue board pointed out some areas where a large amount of revenues got stuck, lost and compromised last year.
Tax revenue worth Tk 230 billion is stuck up with the state-owned Petrobangla.
Also, the NBR offered tax waivers worth about Tk 400 billion to different projects of government and non-governmental organizations for facilitating future investment.
Around 14 per cent negative growth in corporate-tax collection from the banking sector also got mention as a factor among the major challenges.
Efforts for tax collection could be geared up unless field-level officials remained busy preparing for the new VAT law and vacation for Eid-ul-Fitr.
Talking to the FE Saturday, senior secretary of the Internal Resources Division (IRD) and NBR chairman Md Nojibur Rahman said the board achieved a record 19 per cent tax- revenue-collection growth in the just-concluded fiscal year over the previous FY.
The NBR has achieved its revised targets for last three consecutive years but achieved the highest growth last year, he added.
"The revenue collection would be Tk 2.07 trillion if the arrears in revenue could be realized," the NBR chief said.
He expressed his heartfelt gratitude for the cooperation of stakeholders, efforts of tax officials, proper political guidance and role of the media.
The final data on collection of income tax, VAT and customs duty would be available by July 25.
The government has set a target of Tk 2.48 trillion in revenue collection for the NBR in the current financial year that just began.
The NBR chairman expressed his hope for an increase in the country's tax-GDP ratio by 1.0 per cent in a year through intensified effort.
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