The interim government on Tuesday approved a project worth Tk 1,009.20 crore, aiming at the capacity building of tax officials against the backdrop of falling revenue collection in terms of the country’s gross domestic product.
The project titled ‘Strengthening domestic revenue mobilisation project’ was approved by a meeting of the executive committee of the National Economic Council at the Planning Commission in the capital’s Agargaon area.
Interim government’s chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus presided over the meeting.
The ECNEC at the meeting also approved 16 others projects involving Tk 8,974.28 crore, of which Tk 3,410.85 crore will come from local sources and Tk 5,563.43 crore from foreign sources.
According to National Board of Revenue data, the country’s revenue grew by 13.5 per cent to Tk 3.67 lakh crore in 2023 compared with that of Tk 48,500 crore in 2007, but its tax to gross domestic product ratio dropped to 7.4 per cent in the outgoing financial year (2024-25) from 9.1 per cent in 2012.
The country’s tax-GDP ratio is far less than that of the other South Asian countries.
The World Bank is providing loan of Tk 1,000.4 crore for the strengthening domestic revenue mobilisation project to be implemented by 2030 to introduce a new revenue collection and management system.
A call centre dedicated to serving taxpayers will be established while identical identification numbers for both income tax and value-added tax will be adopted.
The project is expected to supplement the ongoing tax reform programme being carried out by the interim government that assumed power on August 8, 2024, after the ouster of the authoritarian Awami League regime in a mass uprising by rationalising tax expenditures and establishing Revenue Policy Division and Revenue Management Division by splitting the NBR.
Of the approved 17 projects, 11 are new and six are revised projects.
The new projects include integrated services and livelihood improvement of the forcibly displaced Rohingyas and the host community, construction of 200-bed drug addiction cure and rehabilitation centres in seven divisional cities, enhancing capacity of four newly built marine academies through installing simulators and other related facilities, access to justice for women: strengthening community dispute resolution and improving case management, strengthening integrated services and operations of quick response team for preventing women and children repression, TVET teachers for the future programme, improvement of public investment management system, procurement modernisation to improve public service delivery, statistical capacity enhancement and modernisation project, and strengthening public audit through digital transformation and capacity enhancement.
The revised projects are upazila complex expansion project, 2nd phase, establishment of 3rd submarine cable for expanding the international telecommunication system in Bangladesh, construction of 13 new buffer warehouses in 13 districts of Bangladesh for enhancing the fertiliser preservation and distribution facilities, establishment of Kishore-Kishori (adolescent) Club, countrywide mobile library, strengthening the development budget management system through installing a new digital database at programming division.
General Economics Division of the finance ministry in its monthly update on Tuesday said that the country’s economic outlook was marked by stability and optimism.
It, however, said that a more effective implementation of the budget was crucial to achieving macroeconomic stability and inclusive development, which hinges on improved revenue mobilisation through targeted reforms.
It called the projected GDP growth of 5.5 per cent and inflation rate at 6.5 per cent for the 2025-26 financial year ‘realistic’.
It also called the targets ‘exceptional’, as the growth target in previous years consistently exceeded the International Monetary Fund’s estimates, which is now more conservative than the IMF’s forecast of 6.5 per cent.
The budget for FY26 reflects three key aspects — macroeconomic stability, public expenditure efficiency, and a balance between revenue mobilisation and expenditure absorption, it said.
