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The Chittagong Customs House (CCH) has failed to achieve its tax collection target in the current financial year (FY 2019-20) which will end on June 30.
The CCH had set a target of collecting Tk 631.68 billion (Tk 63,168 crore) in taxes for fiscal year 2019-20 (FY '20) in last year.
CCH sources said, it's total collection of taxes from July 19, 2019 to May 20, 2020 stood at Tk 582.24 billion (Tk 58,224 crore). They said, it is yet to collect Tk 21,224 crore within June 30, 2020, to achieve the target, which looks impossible.
An official said the CCH could collect taxes worth around Tk 370 billion (Tk 37,000 crore) till May 20 of this year and it will have to collect Tk 212.24 billion more to reach the Tk 631.68 billion target before start of the next fiscal year on July 01, 2020. This certainly looks unachievable, he said.
However, he attributed the Covid-19 pandemic in the globe and coronavirus-induced more than two-month-long nationwide general holidays to CCH's failure to achieve the tax collection target in the outgoing fiscal year.
The novel coronavirus outbreak has affected the country's export and import severely as well as the collection of taxes.
During the protracted general holidays, the Chittagong Port was allowed to handle only essential commodities, medicines, and other emergency items, he mentioned.
On the other hand, most of the luxury goods, including high-value taxable goods were not delivered from the country's prime seaport during the prolonged shutdown, he added.