National Board of Revenue reran its record of missing revenue target, earning about Tk 4,000 crore less than what it expected in the 2006-07 fiscal year that ended on June 30. The government’s revenue earnings from NBR sources stood close to Tk 37,075 crore against a lofty target of Tk 41,055 crore for the last fiscal year. The amount was 9 per cent more than the previous year’s earnings, but far less than a 21 per cent growth envisaged in the budget. The actual earning fell behind the revised target even.

The government slashed the target to Tk 37,297 crore in March following a lacklustre performance in the preceding months. In FY 2005-06, the government’s revenue income from the NBR sources was Tk 33,986.91 crore. NBR figures show revenue earnings from both import and local stages—two biggest sources of domestic revenues— missed the targets. Only individual tax incomes exceeded the target marginally. Income from import stage (including import duty, value added tax and supplementary duty) in 2006-07 fiscal year was Tk 15, 675 crore against the original target of Tk 16,600 crore, while earning from local stage ( excise duty, vat and SD) was Tk 12,489 crore against the original target of Tk 13,500 crore, tax income was Tk 8,668 crore against the target of Tk 8,500 crore and other taxes Tk 309 crore against the target of Tk 455 crore.

Revenue officials attributed the revenue shortfall to political instability and a slump in business activities in the October-December period. ‘Businesses had came almost to a standstill during that period,’ an NBR official said, explaining reasons for poor revenue earning growth. Besides, the revenue board saw four chairmen in the first six months of the current fiscal year, which resulted in a lack of direction and dynamism in revenue collection at the field level, sources said.

The government had to borrow more than what was estimated in the current budget from the banking and non-banking financial institutions due to the poor revenue performance. Poor achievement did not hold back the government from setting even a bigger target of Tk 43,850 crore for the current 2007-08 fiscal year. Of the total, Tk 17, 812 crore has been expected from import stage, Tk 14,800 crore from local stage and Tk 10,838 crore from income tax, sources said.