Income tax collection falls short of target by Tk 4,439cr in H1

Income tax collection by the National Board of Revenue fell short of target by Tk 4,439 crore in the first half of the current fiscal year mainly because of slow growth in corporate tax collection, from the banking sector in particular, and due to the ambitious target set for the year, officials said.
They said that overall slower economic activities in the country and some budgetary measures also caused lower revenue collection in the period.
Large Taxpayer Unit of the NBR, the dedicated unit for collecting income tax from large companies including banks, financial institutions, mobile companies and manufacturing companies and their directors, faced the highest deficit of its target by Tk 1,638 crore in July-December period of the FY 2015-16.
According to the NBR data, taxmen managed to collect Tk 20,584 crore in July-December against the target of Tk 25,023 crore for the period.
Income tax collection, however, grew by 9.95 per cent in the period compared with that of the same months of the last FY 2014-15 when collection was Tk 18,721 crore.
In July-November, income tax earnings grew by 10.77 per cent.
The revenue board has set a target of income tax collection at Tk 65,932 crore for the entire fiscal year.
In the period, the revenue board collected another Tk 444 crore as travel tax across the country while the target of earnings from travel tax was Tk 633.54 crore.
According to the NBR data, 19 field level income tax zones, out of 31, failed to achieve their respective targets in the first half of the year while only 10 zones marginally succeeded in reaching the targets.
The remaining two zones just managed to achieve their targets.
Officials said that the government during finalisation of the budget for the year had reduced tax at source on export and withdrew advance tax on import on some commodities from the sectors from which the NBR was projected to get Tk 2,000 crore.
Import of commercial items where 3 per cent advance income tax is applicable also declined in the period, they said.
In the situation, the revenue board took various initiatives including extensive monitoring on deduction of tax at source, extra care on zones facing big shortfall, imposing penalty to defaulter taxpayers and settling tax disputes to increase revenue collection.
Recently, the finance minister also instructed the revenue board for enhancing its special efforts to minimise the gap.

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