New partnership to bridge revenue data gap

The tax authorities are going to establish an institutional partnership for addressing the discrepancy in revenue collection data by the board and Controller General of Accounts (CGA) office.

Recently, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has formed a high-powered body to implement the plan.

The committee comprises representatives of the NBR, CGA, Internal Resources Division (IRD), Bangladesh Bank (BB), Sonali Bank, and the Finance Division.

Director General (DG) of the Research and Statistics Wing of the NBR Md Abdur Rouf is the convener of the seven-member committee.

Earlier, the NBR had formed such reconciliation committee, which remains inactive.

Officials said a large gap in the total tax revenue collection data between the board and CGA office puzzles the government every year.

The gap between the NBR and the CGA data was widening almost every year.

The gap was only Tk 29.23 billion during the fiscal year, 2010-11, which rose to Tk 126 billion during FY 2014-15.

In fiscal 2015-16, the gap declined to Tk 73.73 billion before doubling during the fiscal year, 2016-17.

The NBR recorded Tk 1.85 trillion aggregate revenue collection during FY 2016-17.

In contrast, the CGA found the actual collection for the year to be Tk 1.71 trillion.

Talking to the FE, Mr Rouf said the committee will try to find out the major reasons for the widening gap in revenue collection data between two government entities.

"We will hold meeting with the members of the newly-formed committee within a short time to discuss the wayouts," he said.

The gap in revenue collection figure is hampering the government's expenditure

plan, he said. The committee will try to gradually minimise the differences in annual revenue collection data between the NBR and the CGA office, he added.

Officials said the NBR formed the committee in a recent meeting chaired by its chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan.

In the meeting, the NBR chief instructed all field-level commissioners to prepare final and reconciled revenue collection data for the outgoing fiscal year (FY), 2017-18, by June 27-28.

He urged officials not to wait until June 30.

NBR officials said there may be several reasons for the discrepancy.

Sometimes BB and Sonali Bank receive tax on wrong account code, causing depository of the money in another head, they said.

In the meeting, the NBR has decided to send letters to the BB and Sonali Bank to ensure area-wise specific account code before receiving the tax.

Also, there are some 'self-account department' including Road and Transport Division, Public Works directorate, Public Health Engineering Directorate, Postal Department, Forest Department.

These entities can disburse their own fund.

Their tax at source is usually deposited centrally through book adjustment without treasury chalan (invoice), officials said.

In the meeting, the NBR decided to hold a meeting with the all 'self-account departments' to help them centrally deposit the tax at source.

Officials said sometimes tax on band-roll of bidi was deposited in the post office instead of specific account code of NBR in banks.

The committee will try to resolve the issues causing data mismatch between the two agencies.

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