A file photo shows a taxpayer filling in an income tax return form at an income tax fair in the city. The National Board of Revenue has failed to achieve its revenue collection target from income tax for the first half of the current fiscal year. — New Age photo

The National Board of Revenue has failed to achieve its revenue collection target from income tax for the first half of the current fiscal year.
The income tax revenue collection fell mainly due to drop of tax at source from different sectors, officials concerned said.
‘After five months of continuous success in achieving targets in income tax collection, the NBR fell short by Tk 52.16 crore in December against its collection target for the month which pushed the six months deficit to Tk 25.20 crore,’ a high official of the NBR told New Age on Thursday.
Income tax zones of the NBR got lower tax at source from different sectors particularly from cash dividends by the listed companies for the shareholders and from savings instruments, he said.
According to provisional data of the NBR, the revenue board had set a target of collecting Tk 13,015 crore in July-December period and Tk 3,044
crore only in December from its 31 income tax zones across the country.
But NBR’s field offices have managed to collect Tk 12,989.80 crore in July-December.
Revenue earnings from income tax, however, grew by 29.01 per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal year compared with the same time of last year when the NBR had collected Tk 10,069.22 crore.
In December alone, revenue collection from income tax stood at Tk 2,991.84 crore as four tax zones of Dhaka failed to achieve the target.
According to official data of the NBR, income tax zone-13 fell short by Tk 145 crore against its target of Tk 249 crore, income tax zone-10 fell short by Tk 30.50 crore, income tax zone-7 by 26 crore and income tax zone-15 by 17 crore in December.
Income tax zone-13 is responsible to collect tax at source on cash dividends declared by the listed companies.
An official of the zone told New Age that their earnings from tax at source declined as listed companies had declared smaller cash dividends in 2012.
Tax zone-10 is responsible to collect tax at source on savings instruments in Dhaka district.
Officials of the zone said that their earnings from the sector reduced due to drop in sales of savings
certificate, an increased trend in pre-mature encashment of the savings instruments by the clients in July-December and reduction of rate of tax at source by the government to
5 per cent from 10 per cent on profit on the instruments.
In this context, NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain held a meeting with income tax commissioners when he asked them to expedite efforts to achieve their targets in coming months as the board fell short by Tk 2,050 crore in overall revenue collection targets for July-November, officials said.
The NBR chief asked the commissioners to find out new potential areas for increasing tax collection and widening tax net.
The tax administration has set a target of Tk 35,300 crore revenue collections from income tax for the entire 2012-13 fiscal year.