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Bangladesh at bottom in Tax GDP ratio in the world.

Homo Sapiens

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কর ও জিডিপি অনুপাতে তলানিতে বাংলাদেশ
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২১ জুন ২০২১ ০০:০০ | আপডেট: ২১ জুন ২০২১ ১০:২০
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মোট দেশজ উৎপাদনের (জিডিপি) বিপরীতে কর আদায়ে বিশ্বে বাংলাদেশের অবস্থান তলানির দিকে। ১৮৩টি দেশের মধ্যে অবস্থান ১৬৫তম। গত ১০ বছরে উচ্চ অর্থনৈতিক প্রবৃদ্ধিও উন্নয়নের সঙ্গে তাল মিলিয়ে অগ্রসর হতে পারেনি অভ্যন্তরীণ সম্পদ আহরণ। এমনকি গত ৫ বছরে সমমানের দেশ, আঞ্চলিক ব্লক ও উন্নত দেশের সঙ্গে রাজস্ব আহরণে পিছিয়ে আছে।
আলোচ্য সময়ে বাংলাদেশের রাজস্ব-জিডিপির অনুপাত ৯ দশমিক ৯ শতাংশ। অন্যদিকে ভারতের ১৯ দশমিক ৭, নেপালের ২১ দশমিক ৫, পাকিস্তানের ১৪ দশমিক ৯, শ্রীলংকার ১২ দশমিক ৭, উদীয়মান ও এশিয়ার উন্নয়নশীল দেশের ২৪ দশমিক ৭ এবং উন্নত বিশে^ ৩৫ দশমিক ৮ শতাংশ। এ জন্য রাজস্ব ব্যবস্থায় বিদ্যমান দুর্বলতা বিবেচনায় নিয়ে দেশের রাজস্ব আহরণের কৌশল নতুনভাবে পরিকল্পনা প্রয়োজন বলে দেশের মধ্য মেয়াদি সামষ্টিক অর্থনৈতিক নীতি বিবৃতিতে উল্লেখ করা হয়েছে।
এ ছাড়া বিশাল অঙ্কের কর ছাড় এ জন্য দায়ী। ২০১৯-২০ অর্থবছরে জাতীয় রাজস্ব বোর্ড (এনবিআর) বেসরকারি খাতে ও ভৌত অবকাঠামো নির্মাণে প্রায় আড়াই লাখ কোটি টাকা করছাড় দিয়েছে। এ কর আদায় করা গেলে প্রকৃত কর-জিডিপি অনুপাত হতো ১৭ দশমিক ৮১ শতাংশ, যা বর্তমানের প্রায় দ্বিগুণ। এনবিআরের সমীক্ষায় এ তথ্য উঠে এসেছে।
কর-জিডিপি অনুপাতে পিছিয়ে থাকা নিয়ে বিভিন্ন মহলে নানা রকম সমালোচনা আছে। এ ক্ষেত্রে এনবিআরের ভূমিকা নিয়েও প্রশ্ন তোলা হয়। কিন্তু প্রতিবছর যে পরিমাণ কর অব্যাহতি দেওয়া হয় এনবিআর তা আদায় করতে পারলে কর-জিডিপি অনুপাত দ্বিগুণ হতো। বেসরকারি খাতকে উৎসাহিত করতে প্রতিবছর নতুন নতুন শিল্পে কর অবকাশ সুবিধা দেওয়া হচ্ছে। স্থানীয় পর্যায়ে ভ্যাট অব্যাহতি এবং আমদানি পর্যায়ে কাঁচামাল, যন্ত্রপাতি ও উপকরণ আমদানিতে শুল্ক অব্যাহতি দেওয়া হচ্ছে। সূত্র আরও জানায়, বছরে কত টাকা কর ছাড় দেওয়া হয় তা জানতে এনবিআর নিজস্ব তথ্যের ভিত্তিতে সম্প্রতি একটি সমীক্ষা করে। এ সমীক্ষার ফল বাজেটের আগে প্রধানমন্ত্রীর কাছে উপস্থাপন করা হয়। কোন খাতে কত ছাড় দেওয়া হয় তার বিস্তারিত সেই প্রতিবেদনে উল্লেখ করা হয়েছে।
সমীক্ষার তথ্য মতে, ২০১৯-২০ অর্থবছরে কাঁচামাল, যন্ত্রাংশ, পণ্য আমদানির বিপরীতে ৪৬ হাজার ৭৫৫ কোটি টাকার শুল্ক ছাড় দেওয়া হয়েছে। তৈরি পোশাকসহ রপ্তানিমুখী শিল্পে বন্ড সুবিধার বিপরীতে ছাড় দেওয়া হয়েছে আরও এক লাখ ৫১ হাজার ৭৩৮ কোটি টাকা। অর্থাৎ শুল্ক খাতে মোট এক লাখ ৯৮ হাজার ৪৯৩ কোটি টাকা ছাড় দেওয়া হয়েছে। এ ছাড়া আয়কর ও ভ্যাট খাতে ছাড় দেওয়া হয়েছে ৫০ হাজার কোটি টাকা। সব মিলিয়ে মোট করছাড়ের পরিমাণ দাঁড়ায় ২ লাখ ৪৮ হাজার ৪৯৩ কোটি টাকা।
খাতভিত্তিক করছাড়ের তথ্য বিশ্লেষণ করে দেখা গেছে, জিডিপিতে উৎপাদনশীল খাতের অবদান সবচেয়ে বেশি। এ খাতেই সবচেয়ে বেশি কর ছাড় দেওয়া হয়। এর পরের অবস্থানে আছে যোগাযোগ; কৃষি, মৎস্য খাত; বিদ্যুৎ, গ্যাস ও পানি সরবরাহ; আবাসন; জনপ্রশাসন ও প্রতিরক্ষা; স্বাস্থ্য ও সামাজিক সুরক্ষা; শিক্ষা খাতেও কর ছাড় দেওয়া হচ্ছে।
আইএমএফের তথ্য অনুসারে, জিডিপির অনুপাতে কর আদায়ের দিক থেকে ১৮৩টি দেশের মধ্যে বাংলাদেশের অবস্থান ১৬৫ নম্বরে। এ তালিকায় প্রথম অবস্থানে রয়েছে ইউরোপের দেশ ফ্রান্স এবং সর্বনিম্নে কুয়েত। ফ্রান্স জিডিপির ৪৬ দশমিক ২ শতাংশ কর আদায় করে। বাজেটের আকার জিডিপির ৫৬ দশমিক ৪ শতাংশ।
বেসরকারি গবেষণা প্রতিষ্ঠান সেন্টার ফর পলিসি ডায়ালগের (সিপিডি) সিনিয়র রিসার্চ ফেলো তৌফিকুল ইসলাম খান বলেন, বাংলাদেশের কর ব্যবস্থায় যে পরিমাণ ফাঁকি দেওয়া হয়, তা অন্য কোনো দেশে নেই। কর ফাঁকি বন্ধ করতে পারলে রাজস্ব আদায়ে ৩০ শতাংশ প্রবৃদ্ধি সম্ভব। কিন্তু এ ধরনের ফাঁকি বন্ধে যে ধরনের প্রাতিষ্ঠানিক উদ্যোগ এবং পরিকল্পনা থাকা দরকার, এবারের বাজেটে সেই ধরনের পদক্ষেপ দেখা যায়নি।
চলতি ২০২০-২০২১ অর্থবছরের প্রথম ১১ মাসে (জুলাই-মে) ২ লাখ ৬২ হাজার ১১৭ কোটি ৫৪ লাখ টাকা লক্ষ্যমাত্রার বিপরীতে সাময়িক হিসাবে আদায় হয়েছে প্রায় দুই লাখ ১৮ হাজার কোটি টাকা। ১১ মাসে রাজস্ব ঘাটতি প্রায় ৪৪ হাজার ১১৭ কোটি টাকা। যদিও গত অর্থবছরের একই সময়ের তুলনায় রাজস্ব আদায় বেড়েছে প্রায় সাড়ে ২৯ হাজার কোটি টাকা। প্রবৃদ্ধি ১৫ দশমিক সাত শতাংশের বেশি।
প্রবৃদ্ধি সন্তোষজনক হলেও করোনা প্রাদুর্ভাবে সৃষ্ট প্রতিকূল পরিবেশে রাজস্ব আহরণে বড় ধরনের ধাক্কা খেতে চলেছে প্রতিষ্ঠানটি। এর আগে জুন-এপ্রিল পর্যন্ত ১০ মাসে চূড়ান্ত হিসাবে রাজস্ব ঘাটতির পরিমাণ ছিল ৫২ হাজার ৬২৩ কোটি ৫৭ লাখ টাকা। অন্যদিকে লকডাউনের আগে এনবিআর ২৯ হাজার কোটি টাকা লক্ষ্যমাত্রা কমানোর জন্য অর্থ মন্ত্রণালয়ের কাছে সুপারিশ করেছিল, যা অনুমোদিত হয়। ফলে নতুন লক্ষ্যমাত্রা দাঁড়ায় তিন লাখ এক হাজার কোটি টাকা।
চলতি ২০২০-২১ অর্থবছরের বাজেটে জাতীয় রাজস্ব বোর্ডের মাধ্যমে আদায়ের লক্ষ্য ধরা হয়েছিল তিন লাখ ৩০ হাজার কোটি টাকা। এর মধ্যে সবচেয়ে বেশি লক্ষ্যমাত্রা ধরা হয় মূল্য সংযোজন কর বা ভ্যাট থেকে, যার পরিমাণ এক লাখ ২৮ হাজার ৮৭৩ কোটি টাকা। এ ছাড়া আয়কর ও ভ্রমণ কর থেকে ১ লাখ পাঁচ হাজার ৪৭৫ কোটি এবং আমদানি শুল্ক থেকে ৯৫ হাজার ৬৫২ কোটি টাকা আদায়ের লক্ষ্য ধরা হয়।
গবেষণা প্রতিষ্ঠান পলিসি রিসার্চ ইনস্টিটিউটের (পিআরআই) নির্বাহী পরিচালক আহসান এইচ মুনসুর বলেন, জিডিপি প্রবৃদ্ধি যে হারে বাড়ছে, সে হারে রাজস্ব আদায় বাড়ছে না। জিডিপি বাড়লে নতুন লোকের কর্মসংস্থান হওয়ার কথা, বিনিয়োগ বৃদ্ধি পাওয়ার কথা, আমদানি বৃদ্ধি পাওয়ার কথা। এসব বাড়লে তো শুল্ক-কর আদায় বেড়ে যাওয়ার কথা।
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ভারপ্রাপ্ত সম্পাদক : মোহাম্মদ গোলাম সারওয়ার প্রকাশক : এস. এম.

Google translation:
Bangladesh's position in the world in terms of tax collection as opposed to gross domestic product (GDP) is declining. Ranked 165th out of 183 countries. In the last 10 years, internal resource mobilization could keep pace with high economic growth. Even in the last 5 years, it is lagging behind in revenue collection with equivalent countries, regional blocs and developed countries.

At present, the revenue-GDP ratio of Bangladesh is 9.9 percent. On the other hand, 19.6 per cent of India, 21.5 per cent of Nepal, 14.9 per cent of Pakistan, 12.7 per cent of Sri Lanka, 24.7 per cent of emerging and developing countries of Asia and 35.7 per cent of developed countries. For this, taking into account the existing weaknesses in the revenue system, the country's revenue collection strategy needs to be re-planned, the country's medium-term macroeconomic policy statement said.

Besides, huge amount of tax exemption is responsible for this. In the 2019-20 financial year, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has given a tax exemption of around Tk 2.5 trillion for the construction of private sector and physical infrastructure. If this tax had been collected, the actual tax-to-GDP ratio would have been 17.81 percent, which is almost double the current one. This information has come up in the NBR survey.

There are various criticisms in various quarters about the tax-GDP ratio lagging behind. The role of NBR in this case was also questioned. But if the NBR could collect the amount of tax exemption given every year, the tax-to-GDP ratio would have doubled. In order to encourage the private sector, tax breaks are being provided to new industries every year. VAT exemption at local level and import duty on raw materials, machinery and equipment at import stage. The source further said that the NBR recently conducted a survey based on its own data to know how much tax exemption is given in a year. The results of the survey were presented to the Prime Minister before the budget. Details of how many concessions are given in any sector are mentioned in the report.

According to the survey data, duty exemption of Tk 47,755 crore has been given against the import of raw materials, parts and products in the 2019-20 financial year. In the export-oriented industries including ready-made garments, a further concession of Tk 1.51 trillion has been given against the bond facility. In other words, a total of one trillion 97 thousand 493 crore taka has been given in the customs sector. Besides, Tk 50,000 crore has been given as exemption in income tax and VAT sector. In all, the total amount of tax exemption stands at Tk 2 trillion 46 thousand 493 crore.


Analyzing the sector-wise tax exemption data, it has been seen that the contribution of productive sector to GDP is the highest. This sector is the most tax exempt. The next position is communication; Agriculture, fisheries; Supply of electricity, gas and water; Housing; Public administration and defense; Health and social security; Tax exemptions are also being given in the education sector.

According to the IMF, Bangladesh ranks 165th out of 183 countries in terms of GDP. France tops the list, followed by Kuwait. France collects 48.2% of GDP in taxes. The size of the budget is 56.4% of GDP.

Taufiqul Islam Khan, a senior research fellow at the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a private research institute, said the amount of tax evasion in Bangladesh is unmatched in any other country. If tax evasion can be stopped, 30 percent increase in revenue collection is possible. But the kind of institutional initiatives and plans that need to be put in place to stop such evils have not been seen in this year's budget.

In the first 11 months (July-May) of the current fiscal year 2020-2021, against the target of Tk. 2.62 trillion, NBR collected Tk.2.18 Trillion. The revenue deficit in 11 months is about Tk 44,117 crore. However, the revenue collection has increased by about Tk 29,000 crore as compared to the same period last fiscal. Growth is more than 15.7 percent.

While the growth is satisfactory, the company is facing a major setback in raising revenue in the adverse environment created by the Corona outbreak. Earlier, the final revenue deficit for the 10 months till June-April was Tk 52,623.56 crore. On the other hand, before the lockdown, the NBR had recommended to the Finance Ministry to reduce the target by Rs 29,000 crore, which was approved. As a result, the new target is three lakh one thousand crore rupees.

In the budget of the current fiscal year 2020-21, the target was to collect Tk 3 lakh 30 thousand crore through the National Board of Revenue. The highest target is from value added tax or VAT, amounting to one lakh 26 thousand 73 crore. Besides, the target is to collect Tk 1,05,475 crore from income tax and travel tax and Tk 95,752 crore from import duty.

Ahsan H. Munsur, executive director of the research institute Policy Research Institute (PRI), said revenue collection was not growing at the same rate as GDP growth. If GDP increases, new people should be employed, investment should increase, imports should increase. If all these increase, the collection of customs and taxes should increase.

 
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BD needs to for the time being leave income tax collection alone. Concentrate on taxing fixed assets i.e houses, office buildings, land, ect. This is not being done correctly.

Next tax illigal indians, tax transshipment, tax imports of finished goods.

After that tackle corporate tax and then income tax.
 
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BD needs to for the time being leave income tax collection alone. Concentrate on taxing fixed assets i.e houses, office buildings, land, ect. This is not being done correctly.

Next tax illigal indians, tax transshipment, tax imports of finished goods.

After that tackle corporate tax and then income tax.


Where BD is really missing out is on customs fees, I have some family that work at the port of CTG and he is in contact with clearing agents at the customs and according to him nearly 60% of the tariffs are dodged.


This is done by labeling the incoming shipment incorrectly.. for instance Good A is highly tariffed, so they simply declare their consignment to be Good B, thereby dodging huge import fees.


Due to a manpower crisis and dated practices, the officials are not able to or are unwilling to inspect containers and consignments.. I remember him telling me that they only check what's inside when they feel like it.. think one in ten containers.


Chittagong Customs and Port authority are rotten to the core.. NBR needs to look into this, the government is losing out on huge amounts of revenue.



Infact, this is a huge national security risk and the ACC and other relevant authorities ought to launch a full investigation.
 
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BD needs to for the time being leave income tax collection alone. Concentrate on taxing fixed assets i.e houses, office buildings, land, ect. This is not being done correctly.

Next tax illigal indians, tax transshipment, tax imports of finished goods.

After that tackle corporate tax and then income tax.

Excellent suggestions bhai. Hit the nails on the heads. :-)
 
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Where BD is really missing out is on customs fees, I have some family that work at the port of CTG and he is in contact with clearing agents at the customs and according to him nearly 60% of the tariffs are dodged.


This is done by labeling the incoming shipment incorrectly.. for instance Good A is highly tariffed, so they simply declare their consignment to be Good B, thereby dodging huge import fees.


Due to a manpower crisis and dated practices, the officials are not able to or are unwilling to inspect containers and consignments.. I remember him telling me that they only check what's inside when they feel like it.. think one in ten containers.


Chittagong Customs and Port authority are rotten to the core.. NBR needs to look into this, the government is losing out on huge amounts of revenue.



Infact, this is a huge national security risk and the ACC and other relevant authorities ought to launch a full investigation.

I think periodic inspections and raids in customs house will solve some issues. We need high level honest people with some power and pull.

Anti corruption commission itself is corrupt, Shorishar moddhei bhoot. They should have a rule to fire customs, ACC and immigration people as soon as any corruption irregularity is found. These should be immediately disposable jobs given how much money the a$$holes make in these positions and how critically honest the roles need to be ...
 
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Isn't this a good thing?



In one way it is but not in another way.

Some areas of spending are far better and more efficiently done by central government than the general population.

As an example, infrastructure is always better done by government than the population for obvious reasons. Another reason specific to BD is that it is a very poor country and so needs to collect the taxes due from its richer population in order to provide basics services like education and healthcare that the poor cannot afford from their own means.

While BD should not strive to become a high-tax economy it needs to find effective ways to slowly raise its tax to gdp ratio.

Anyway, it will be helped by digitalisation and high wage growth as then as more and more people start to earn above the income tax threshold and as more will be paid digitally, it will be harder for there to be income tax evasion. This by in itself will raise the tax gdp ratio over the next 1-2 decades by some percentage points but other ways need to be found to raise it even further.
 
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In one way it is but not in another way.

Some areas of spending are far better and more efficiently done by central government than the general population.

As an example, infrastructure is always better done by government than the population for obvious reasons. Another reason specific to BD is that it is a very poor country and so needs to collect the taxes due from its richer population in order to provide basics services like education and healthcare that the poor cannot afford from their own means.

While BD should not strive to become a high-tax economy it needs to find effective ways to slowly raise its tax to gdp ratio.

Anyway, it will be helped by digitalisation and high wage growth as then as more and more people start to earn above the income tax threshold and as more will be paid digitally, it will be harder for there to be income tax evasion. This by in itself will raise the tax gdp ratio over the next 1-2 decades by some percentage points but other ways need to be found to raise it even further.
I don't think it is so certain that infrastructure is always better done by government, especially when alternatives aren't sufficiently tried out. Governments certainly want you to believe that and they won't hesitate to inject such an idea through government-sponsored education programs and media. But is it really so? The question lies with how well citizens can organize themselves for their common interests. In this case, infrastructure. Early history of American towns give people some rare cases on how infrastructure was built without much government involvement but that trend stopped in 1913.

However, in most places, people's ingenuity and confidence are suppressed by government's desire for power. Few people can imagine a well self-organized society without much government participation. The more government interference, the less capable people are. For example, in my observation, in US and Canada, immigrants from India are much more capable for organizing themselves than immigrants from mainland China, which helps explain their success in political arenas and ladder climbing in private businesses.
 
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I don't think it is so certain that infrastructure is always better done by government, especially when alternatives aren't sufficiently tried out. Governments certainly want you to believe that and they won't hesitate to inject such an idea through government-sponsored education programs and media. But is it really so? The question lies with how well citizens can organize themselves for their common interests. In this case, infrastructure. Early history of American towns give people some rare cases on how infrastructure was built without much government involvement but that trend stopped in 1913.


I think we are talking about two different kinds of infrastructure here.

It may work at the local level but when you build truly national infrastructure then government is the only way to go.

Think of nuclear power stations, multiple km wide river bridges, motorways and railways that span hundreds of kms, then this can only be realistically done at the national level.

There is no true "best" system when it comes to tax to gdp ratio as there is very high tax and successful countries like Denmark but also others like Singapore that have much lower levels of taxation.
In the former, the citizen does not need to spend any extra money on services like education and healthcare but the latter at least requires expensive health insurance and some payment to education costs.
 
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I think we are talking about two different kinds of infrastructure here.

It may work at the local level but when you build truly national infrastructure then government is the only way to go.

Think of nuclear power stations, multiple km wide river bridges, motorways and railways that span hundreds of kms, then this can only be realistically done at the national level.

There is no true "best" system when it comes to tax to gdp ratio as there is very high tax and successful countries like Denmark but also others like Singapore that have much lower levels of taxation.
In the former, the citizen does not need to spend any extra money on services like education and healthcare but the latter at least requires expensive health insurance and some payment to education costs.
The assumption you made is that ordinary citizens cannot cooperate with each other and carry out such a large project. In reality, the biggest obstacle is the government monopoly in most of the public land and through various regulations, which prevent citizens from carrying out such a project. The biggest issue in any infrastructure is the land. So long as most lands are owned by citizens and their property rights are held up as sacred, there are always some opportunities for some of them to work out a plan.
 
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I don't think it is so certain that infrastructure is always better done by government, especially when alternatives aren't sufficiently tried out. Governments certainly want you to believe that and they won't hesitate to inject such an idea through government-sponsored education programs and media. But is it really so? The question lies with how well citizens can organize themselves for their common interests. In this case, infrastructure. Early history of American towns give people some rare cases on how infrastructure was built without much government involvement but that trend stopped in 1913.

However, in most places, people's ingenuity and confidence are suppressed by government's desire for power. Few people can imagine a well self-organized society without much government participation. The more government interference, the less capable people are. For example, in my observation, in US and Canada, immigrants from India are much more capable for organizing themselves than immigrants from mainland China, which helps explain their success in political arenas and ladder climbing in private businesses.

Unfortunately the US/Canada frontier days can not be replicated in BD. It is the most populous country in the world with low capital reserves. If people were going to self organise and develop the country it would have already happened. To be fair in some instances it has (our NGOs are biggest in the world) but on a mass scale BD needs government to step in like in China to develop infastructure.

To effectively do this tax income needs to rise.
 
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Doesn't a lot of the petrodollar gulf states have really low tax collection?

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE have Tax Revenue, as a % of their comparable, if not lower than that of Bangladesh. Of course, the economic dynamics are a lot different. Saudi Arabia manages to keep its society stable due to its petro-dollar financed tax-free welfare state. When that depletes, it has the potential of becoming a powder-keg tbh.

For developing countries like Bangladesh, the government needs much more tax revenues, to carry out vital development programs. This is one of the reasons why BRAC and GRAMEEN became what they are today. Historic lack of state budget ment development had to come from somewhere else.

Tax revenue is one of the biggest barriers to further growth. The state needs to be significantly strengthened, in order to fully implement its policies and ambitions more effectively. Bangladesh so far has been moving in auto-pilot mode. NGOs and private firms helped to fill in the deficiencies of state institutions. But that'll only get you so far.
 
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Unfortunately the US/Canada frontier days can not be replicated in BD. It is the most populous country in the world with low capital reserves. If people were going to self organise and develop the country it would have already happened. To be fair in some instances it has (our NGOs are biggest in the world) but on a mass scale BD needs government to step in like in China to develop infastructure.

To effectively do this tax income needs to rise.
May your politicians treat your money with respect. Usually I don't trust anyone else with my money. :)
 
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May your politicians treat your money with respect. Usually I don't trust anyone else with my money. :)

BD continues to rank as one of the most corrupt countries. This is a partial explanation for our current development situation.

I fully agree with your position but such is our fate that we have to rely on such scum
 
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