Bangladesh tax revenue up

09 Mar, 2007

Bangladesh's tax revenues in January rose 3.4 percent from a year earlier to 28.26 billion taka ($410 million), but is below the monthly average needed to reach the full-year target, government data showed.
In July-January, the first seven months of fiscal 2006/07, collection was 187.32 billion taka, up 9.06 percent from a year earlier, but it was some 52 billion taka short of target.
Value-added tax collection totalled 73.16 billion taka in July-January, 15.31 percent higher than a year earlier. Customs duty receipts were up 4.05 percent at 45.14 billion taka and income tax rose 21.15 percent to 34.14 billion taka.
Bangladesh decided in January to slash its annual development spending for the current fiscal year by more than 15 percent to 220 billion taka ($3.18 billion) on poor revenue collection.
"A shortfall in revenue collection was mainly due to slow resource mobilisation from the import sector," said Professor Mustafizur Rahman, research director Centre for Policy Dialogue, a private think-tank.

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