The overall revenue grew 15 percent in the last four months, although collection from customs saw only 8.44 percent rise, thanks to import tariff cut on some 3,000 items only one month into the passage of the budget.
National Board of Revenue (NBR) sources said collections from VAT rose 16.39 percent, income tax 16.15 percent and other taxes including supplementary duties 16.38 percent in the first four months of the current fiscal year over the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The NBR sources said reduction in tariff rate by 1.5 to 2 percentage points on some 3,352 items following the World Bank pressure is the main reason behind lower growth in customs revenue collection.
The government reduced the rate of two of the three tiers of the tariff lines -- from 7.5 percent to 6 percent and from 15 percent to 13 percent in August. The sources said a large chunk of revenue income comes from these two tariff lines.
The import also nose-dived in the recent months. The import growth in July--August period in the current fiscal year was 15.76 percent while the growth was 25.09 percent in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The letter of credit (LC) opening increased 16.68 percent in July-August period. But in July-September the LC growth came down to a paltry 4.22 percent.
The LC opening for consumer goods decreased $142 million in July-September period, while the LC for intermediate goods fell $28 million.
Total NBR revenue collection stood at Tk 9,456 crore in July-October period as against Tk 8,284 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
During the time, revenue collections from customs duties stood at Tk 2,485 crore which was Tk 2,291 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal year.
A target of Tk 35,652 crore has been fixed for the current fiscal year for the NBR. The NBR collected around 26 percent of the target in the first four months of the fiscal year. The rest 74 percent is required to be collected in the coming eight months.
The sources said if the overall political situation remains stable the NBR will be able to reach the target. But the sluggishness in economic activities following the Eid vacation and tight security measures during Saarc summit and political unrest in November may have negative impact on revenue collection, the sources added.
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