MD ASADUZ ZAMAN

Bangladesh’s revenue collection fell in November this year even though the country saw improvement in its business climate that month thanks to the alleviation of political uncertainties stemming from the nationwide mass uprising in July-August.

Revenue collection amounted to Tk 25,360 crore in November, down 8.95 percent compared to the same month the year prior, shows provisional data of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

On top of that, overall revenue collection declined 2.62 percent year-on-year to Tk 130,185 crore in the July-November period of the current fiscal year (FY).

Besides, the tax administrator was Tk 38,830 crore behind its collection target of Tk 169,015 crore for the first five months of FY25, with its end goal set at Tk 480,000 crore for the year.

Bangladesh underwent political upheaval in the July-August period as a student movement culminated in an uprising that ended the 15-year reign of the Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina.

In the lead up and even long after the political changeover in early August, businesses in the country were seriously hampered by internet outages, lack of law-and-order and labour unrest, resulting in lower revenue collection.

And although the situation started stabilising from September, government revenue collection has remained below what was registered during the same period of the previous year.

Regarding the lower revenue collection, some NBR officials and financial analysts are blaming the ongoing economic slowdown, including reduced imports, increased subsidies for various sectors and persistent higher inflationary pressure.

“The deceleration in revenue collection is closely linked to the current economic slowdown,” said MA Razzaque, research director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh.

Reduced imports, higher exemptions and inflationary pressure also contributed to the overall shortfall, he added.

The World Bank slashed its forecast for Bangladesh’s economic growth by 1.7 percentage points to 4 percent for FY25 due to “significant uncertainties following recent political turmoil” and “data unavailability”.

However, Razzaque said the country’s actual GDP growth