The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked to increase the tax to GDP ratio by 0.6 percentage points by the end of this fiscal year to make up for last fiscal year's revenue collection shortfall.

Last fiscal year, the ratio stood at 7.3 percent.

As per conditions of an existing loan of the Washington-based lender, the ratio was supposed to be increased by 0.5 percentage points every year.

"But the IMF asked to raise the ratio…for the current fiscal year to mitigate last year's shortfall… It will definitely create an extra burden on us," said a top official of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) yesterday.

The issue was raised during a scheduled closed-door meeting between an IMF delegation and NBR officials at the tax authority's Agargaon headquarters in Dhaka.

This is the third IMF delegation arriving with the primary task of assessing the country's progress in meeting the criteria for the release of a fourth tranche of the $4.7 billion loan.

The multilateral lender approved the $4.7 billion loan in January 2023. Bangladesh has already received $2.3 billion in three tranches.

The IMF mission's discussions with the interim government of Bangladesh began on Tuesday, incorporating potential conditions for a fresh $3 billion loan. The discussions are to continue until December 17.

The delegation asked why the NBR failed to meet the IMF's revenue collection target for the previous fiscal year and sought to know about the measures taken to increase revenue collections, according to the official.

The tax authority logged overall receipts of Tk 382,562 crore in fiscal year 2023-24, falling short of its revised target by Tk 27,438 crore.

"We explained our real situation to them and informed of what we have done in recent times, including measures to increase tax return submissions," said the official.

The multilateral lender laid emphasis on revenue mobilisation, especially for the fact that Bangladesh witnessed a one percent year-on-year drop in revenue collection in the first four months of this fiscal year.

The tax authority collected Tk 101,281 crore in the July-October period, falling short of the target by Tk 30,831 crore.

The target for the entirety of fiscal year 2024-25 has been set at Tk 480,000 crore.

The NBR official further said the mission had enquired about the tax expenditures and various reform measures, including automation of the taxation system and e-return filing.

"We have been asked to reduce tax exemptions in a rational way," the official added.

The IMF team also agreed to extend their assistance for automation.

Besides, the mission also discussed the status of medium and long-term revenue collection strategies, measures to strengthen tax administration governance and plans to separate the tax administration from the tax policymaking department.