Staff Correspondent:

In the first eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal year 2024-25, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is lagging behind the revenue target by more than 58,000 crore taka. The growth has been only 1.76%.

Earlier, by the end of December, the shortfall was almost 58,000 crore taka. NBR officials have claimed that factors such as political instability in July and August, and the increase in the value of the dollar, contributed to the reduced revenue collection.

According to sources in NBR’s statistics department, the revised target for the first eight months of the current fiscal year was 2,80,059.21 crore taka. However, the collection was 2,21,817.09 crore taka. The shortfall amounts to 58,242 crore taka. In the same period of the 2023-24 fiscal year, the revenue collection was 2,17,971 crore taka.

For the current fiscal year, NBR’s target was 4,80,000 crore taka, but midway through the year, the target was reduced to 4,63,500 crore taka.

According to research and statistical accounts, revenue from imports in the July-February period of the current fiscal year was 64,439 crore taka, while in the same period of the previous fiscal year, it was 65,288 crore taka, showing a 1.30% decrease.

At the local level, revenue from VAT and excise duties in the first eight months of the current fiscal year totaled 84,223 crore taka, compared to 82,402 crore taka in the same period last year, an increase of 2.21%.

On the other hand, income tax and travel-related revenue for the July-February period of 2024-25 was 73,154 crore taka, compared to 70,280 crore taka in the previous fiscal year, showing a growth of 4.09%.

It is worth noting that the 2024-25 fiscal year budget projected total revenue of 5,41,000 crore taka, which is 9.7% of GDP. Of this, 4,80,000 crore taka was expected to come from the National Board of Revenue, and the target for collecting 61,000 crore taka from other sources was also set.