Ambitious revenue target for FY24

The revenue growth target for the next fiscal year is set at around 15%, while the actual revenue growth in the outgoing fiscal year was around 7%.

Economists said the target was unrealistic and there will be a huge deficit in fulfilling the target by the end of the upcoming fiscal year.

In the budget for FY23, the government's total revenue target, including the amount collected by the National Board of Revenue, was set at Tk4.33 lakh crore, which for the next year has been set at Tk5 lakh crore.

According to the National Board of Revenue, responsible for most of the tax collection in the country, revenue collection in the first 10 months of FY23 has increased by only 7% compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year. But in the previous fiscal years, this rate was around 14% on average.

Besides, there was a negative growth of more than 2% in revenue collection in April this year.

In spite of that, the National Board Revenue's collection target for FY24 is set at Tk4.30 lakh crores, which was Tk3.70 lakh crore in the outgoing fiscal year.

According to a recent estimation of the Policy Research Institute, the National Board of Revenue's revenue collection will fall short by at least Tk55,000 crore compared to its target. Which means, the revenue board's target in FY24 will be 36% higher compared to that in FY23.

Moreover, there are no signs of a good turnaround in the economy in the next fiscal year, which could result in huge revenue collection, said experts.

"The target is not realistic and there will be a huge deficit in fulfilling it in the next fiscal year. The contribution of tax to GDP (tax to GDP ratio) will decrease rather than increase too," Dr Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of Policy Research Institute (PRI),, told The Business Standard.

Asked about setting a huge revenue target, former chairman of National Board of Revenue Dr Muhammad Abdul Majid told TBS that the National Board of Revenue is given the task of collecting an enormous amount of tax, because the government aims to spend more. However, the revenue board does not have the capacity to collect such a large amount of tax.

"You cannot hold the National Board of Revenue for not having enough capacity. It does not have the sufficient manpower, because the government does not increase investment on them," he added.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has given several conditions to Bangladesh while disbursing a $4.7 billion loan, one of which is to increase tax contribution to GDP by 0.5% in the next fiscal year.