BM Desk : According to economists, the National Board of income (NBR) cannot fulfill its income target of Tk 463,500 crore for the current fiscal year unless it collects Tk 141,000 crore this month.

According to provisional figures, NBR’s tax collection increased 4.21 percent year over year to Tk 3,22,232 crore between July and May of FY2024–25.The amount was Tk 72,228 crore less than the NBR’s goal for the time frame.

Revenue officials protested for two weeks, demanding the revocation of a new ordinance that sought to separate the NBR, which officials said had an impact on collections in May.
In order to comply with an International Monetary Fund condition linked to a $4.7 billion loan package, the interim government presented the decree as part of revenue reforms. After the administration promised to change the law, the demonstration came to an end. Revenue collection was hampered by the disruption of services at field offices.

According to Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, chairman of the Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID), tax collection is probably going to be slower this month than it was a year ago. He pointed out that the Eid-ul-Azha holidays had caused a slowdown in economic activity. As officials halted operations, May’s collection plummeted. Recovery is basically impossible, even if we suppose that it is feasible with effort. For a few days, the NBR was essentially non-operational,” he stated.

“The prospects of fulfilling the tax collection target are quite poor in this situation,” Razzaque continued. The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) had estimated that there will be a Tk 105,000 crore shortfall in revenue collection in in FY25.

For the thirteenth year in a row, the NBR will fall short of its revenue collecting goal.In light of this, the government has set a tax collection target of Tk 499,000 crore for FY2025-26, which is 7.6% more than the amended target for this year. The actual receipts of Tk 361,000 crore fall very short of the target. “A very high revenue target has been set for the upcoming fiscal year. “It just won’t be possible,” Razzaque stated. He also cautioned about the increasing external dangers. “We still don’t know how Trump’s reciprocal tariff policy will play out, and we are already under economic strain owing to different interruptions,” he stated.

“Our revenue will be impacted if international trade slows down as a result. Economic management would be more difficult than it would be in a typical year due to the slowdown,” he stated.