The revenue collection of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) suffered in the first three months of the running 2024-25 fiscal.
The total collection in this period, the first quarter or Q1, saw a 6.1 percent fall compared to the same tenure of the last fiscal.
According to the released data by the revenue collecting authority, the total revenue collection target for the first three months of the fiscal (July-September) was Tk 96,499.90 crore, but it managed to collect Tk 70,902.90 crore. In the last fiscal, the corresponding amount was Tk 75,487.70 crore.
According to the data, the revenue collection target for September was Tk 39,324 crore. But NBR managed to collect only Tk 29,002.68 crore.
A senior NBR official told UNB revenue collection is usually slow during this period of every fiscal year, but this time it has also been affected by the political upheaval in the wake of the Anti-Discrimination Students movement that started in the first week of July, eventually leading to a change in government and putting the country in a transition period that continues till today.
Throughout the month of July and till the first week of August in particular, the movement was at its peak leaving widespread violence and bloodshed in its wake, as the government struggled to contain it. There was even a curfew in place from July 19 to August 5. Almost everything was closed, or heavily regulated.
These had naturally impacted the collection of customs and taxes, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity considering the sensitivity of the situation.
The uncertainty in the business sector continued even after the change of government in the first week of August.
“Due to these reasons, the customs and tax officials said that they could not collect the desired revenue,” the official said.
A tax collection target of Tk 4,80,000 crore in the 2024-25 fiscal was fixed for NBR by the last government.
NBR officials feel that the pace of tax collection will pick up towards the end of the year.
It may be mentioned that Bangladesh is in a $4.7 billion loan program from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Two major conditions related to revenue collection attached to the programme are i) Increasing revenue collection by 1.5 percent of GDP every year, and ii) removal of all tax exemptions by 2027.
There is talk of a strategy to increase revenue collection that will be decided by next December.
