Visiting IMF mission to seek info on NBR’s revenue collection plan

The fact-finding mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will ask the National Board of Revenue (NBR) about its revenue collection plan and the assessment of 2023-24 fiscal year.

Besides, the mission will also want to know about the status of the tax expenditure and various reform measures, including automation.

The four-member delegation led by Mission Chief Chris Papageorgiou is supposed to raise the issues during their scheduled closed-door meeting with the NBR officials tomorrow.

Besides, it will also seek information about the tax commitments the government made as part of its tax revenue measures under the IMF-supported programme and plans for FY25 and FY26.

The IMF mission arrived in Dhaka on Monday as part of its a weeklong visit to assess Bangladesh's potential financial needs as the country had sought an extra $3 billion loan during separate virtual meetings with the IMF earlier.

The multilateral lender emphasised on the revenue mobilisation issue as the country had already witnessed an 11 percent drop in revenue collection in the first two months of the current fiscal year.

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The NBR is still lagging behind by nearly Tk 15,000 crore from the revenue collection for the July-August period and the target for the entire FY25 is set at Tk 480,000 crore.

As part of the visit, the mission will hold four meetings with the NBR, including three wings for income tax, value-added tax and customs.

The IMF mission will want to know about the status of the medium- and long-term revenue strategy and progress of the digitalisation transformation process.

In the technical meeting with NBR's customs policy team, the mission will ask about the status of the FY25 budget measures related to customs and initiatives to meet the end-June 2025 tax revenue targets.

Besides, the mission will also ask about the follow-up on tax expenditure assessment.

In line with the IMF's conditions, the NBR published its first ever customs expenditure report last month.

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In 2022-23 fiscal year, the tax administrator allowed Tk 33,729 crore in duty exemptions to various sectors as well as industries and agricultural enterprises.

Besides, the mission will ask about the progress of the IT administration reforms, including digitalisation and broadening of the tax base.

Similarly, it will also look into the progress on VAT administration reforms.