The National Board of Revenue has asked its offices to intensify their drive to attain this fiscal year’s revenue collection target overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic so the tax-GDP ratio improves to double-digit.

It also asked customs and taxes appellate tribunals to clear the pending cases in due time.

These directives have been given recently at a coordination meeting of the finance ministry’s Internal Resources Division (IRD).

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Speaking at the meeting NBR chairman and IRD secretary Abu Hena Md. Rahmatul Muneem asked all NBR officials to remain sincere and active to achieve the revenue collection set at Tk 330,078 crore during fiscal 2021-22.

He asked the NBR members, customs commissioners and tax commissioners to intensify proper monitoring system.

The NBR chairman directed the research and statistics division director general to submit updated revenue collection information in every month’s coordination meeting.

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Of the total target the VAT wing will contribute the lion share with Tk 127,745 crore which is 11 percent higher than the revised target of the last fiscal. Last fiscal the target was Tk 125, 163 crore.

The target for Income Tax and Tax on Profit has been set Tk 104, 952 crore where it was Tk 103, 945 in the last fiscal.

The revenue collection from import duty will be Tk 37, 907 crore, Tk 54,465 crore from from Supplementary Duty, Tk 56 from export duty, Tk 3825 from Excise Duty while Tk 1050 crore from other taxes and duties.

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In the last fiscal (2020-21) the revised revenue target was Tk 301,000 crore while it was set Tk 330,000 in the main budget.

But the NBR could not attain the revised target mainly due to the ongoing pandemic that saw the government to impose lockdowns affecting the economy.

According to the available data the revenue collection in 2020-21 fiscal was Tk 41,000 crore less than the revised target while Tk 70,000 from the original target.

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The collection was Tk 259,900 crore although the growth was 19 percent.

“The board has already directed all the field offices to intensify and strengthen their respective proper monitoring system to attain the target for 2021-22 fiscal,” a senior official of the NBR told UNB.

He said that the board has also directed the field offices to give extra efforts in this regard.

Read NBR faces uphill task in achieving VAT collection target

According to data, the tax to GDP ratio of the country has been 9.9 percent on an average since 2015-2019, while it is 19.8 percent for India, 23.9 percent for Nepal, 14.7 percent for Pakistan, 13.5 percent for Sri Lanka.

The ratio is 25.6% for developing countries and 35.9% for developed countries, according to the data.

The tax-to-GDP ratio is a ratio of a nation's tax revenue relative to its gross domestic product, the value of goods and services produced in a country during a certain period. The ratio is also a marker of how well the government controls a country's economic resources.

Read NBR moves to speed up revenue collection