The National Board of Revenue (NBR) remains ambitious despite the changing reality. They have initially set a revenue target of Tk 5 lakh 64 thousand crore for FY 2025-26, which is Tk 74 thousand crore higher than the current FY 2024-25. Apart from this, the revenue income for the next two financial years has also been projected. In this, the revenue target for the financial year 2026-27 will be 6 lakh 49 thousand crores and in 2027-28 it will be 7 lakh 46 thousand crores. That is, the government is planning to increase the internal revenue income by 2.5 lakh crores in the next two years.
This estimate and projection for the next three financial years was finalized in the meeting of the Budget Management Committee (BMC) on January 2 regarding setting revenue collection targets. The meeting was presided over by the Secretary of Internal Resources Department of the Ministry of Finance and the Chairman of the National Board of Revenue. Abdur Rahman Khan.
Meanwhile, the budget size of the next financial year is also increasing significantly with increasing the revenue target. According to preliminary calculations, the potential amount of the budget will stand at 8 lakh 50 thousand crores. However, as always, this continuation of not meeting the proposed expenditure and revenue targets is ongoing.
Stakeholders recommend an analysis of why targets are not being met, even if they are in favor of raising targets in the face of deficits. Economists, on the other hand, feel that demand-based revenue planning can be a sustainable way to implement the budget instead of the traditional approach.
In this regard, the research director of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a private research institute. Khandaker Ghulam Moazzem told Ajker newspaper that the economy is at such a stage that there is a need to cut costs. Revenue collection needs to increase. But the need for revenue collection should be related to balanced expenditure.
Golam Moazzem added, most of this budget will be spent on domestic and foreign debt repayment. So the budget should be implemented by reducing expenditure by earning income. It is necessary to determine the revenue sources keeping in mind the expenditure structure and without creating additional pressure on the common man in determining the target of revenue collection.
The size of the budget for the current financial year 2024-25 is 7 lakh 97 thousand crores. The size of the next budget will increase by 50 thousand crore rupees. The Department of Internal Resources has set a revenue target of Tk 564,000 crore to meet the expenditure of this budget, which is Tk 73,618 crore or 15 percent higher than last fiscal year. This year the target of internal revenue collection is Tk 4 lakh 90 thousand crores. In 2023-24, the target was 4 lakh 10 thousand crores, but the realization was 3 lakh 82 thousand 562 crores. As a result, there was a deficit of about 28 thousand crore rupees, that is, a deficit of 7 percent.
Former Chairman of NBR Mohammad Abdul Majeed has given his opinion in favor of raising the target even though there is a shortfall in revenue collection. He said why he could not earn revenue, he will be held accountable. The budget cannot be reduced because the revenue collection targets have not been met. Aim to give more.
Abdul Majeed also said that the expenditure budget should be increased according to the size of the economy. Investment should be brought into the economy. Earlier, the budget was increased by doing unreasonable work, injustice and irregularity. However, the budget should be increased for standard expenditure. If the budget increases, the revenue should increase. Accountability must be ensured for why targets are not being met.
Traders fear that increasing the tax burden to raise revenue could hurt the economy. In this regard, former director of FBCCI and president of Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicles Importers and Dealers Association (Barvida) Abdul Haque said, 'The economic situation is dire. At this time, steps like revenue collection and tax increase will be terrible. This reduces the purchasing power of the people. It is easy for the government to raise taxes. If businesses can't pay that, business suffers, what happens? Rather, the government should reduce expenditure and find revenue gaps.'
