NBR lacks interest in necessary reforms to increase revenue: State minister
State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam said revenue collection was not increasing in line with the country's growth owing to the lack of interest in reforms on the part of the National Board of Revenue.
"There is no scope to single-handedly blame the National Board of Revenue [NBR] for not collecting the expected revenue. But the NBR lacks interest in taking forward reforms," the minister said while speaking at a roundtable discussion titled "Budget Deficit and Inflation Challenge" organised by the Editors' Guild at a conference centre in the capital on Saturday (3 June).
Shamsul Alam claimed there has been a necessity to increase the scope of taxes to meet the budget expenditure.
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"As part of this net increase initiative, Tk2,000 has been levied on filing e-TIN returns," he said, also noting that marginalised groups, especially the poor, do not have a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN).
Regarding the allegation that the NBR's opinion was not taken in setting targets for the budget, he said the revenue body, alongside others, was called for discussions during the initial stage of forming the budget.
The minister further said, "The NBR is not committed to implementing the reforms in the revenue structure called for in the government's policy document, the Five Year Plan. So, what suggestions can they give?"
Highlighting the positive aspects of the national budget for FY24, Selim Raihan, executive director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (Sanem), said, "Besides the tax-free life span, the increase in spending on social security is a positive aspect of the new budget.
"Initiatives to increase import tax on some luxury goods, carbon tax on multiple cars and tax on land registration are also commendable," he added.
Raihan, however, said rather than showing the dream of a big growth in the GDP, it was more necessary to control inflation and bring the overall economy on track even if it achieved a moderate growth.
He also said there is no specific initiative on market management as well as fiscal and monetary policies to control inflation, and address the problems in the revenue sector or crisis in the banking sector.
At the meeting, economists, education and health sector experts, business leaders as well as former and current officials of various departments of the government highlighted aspects of the budget presented by Finance Minister AHM Mostafa Kamal on 1 June.
