The National Board of Revenue (NBR), however, realised Tk 974 crore more as import duty than that of the corresponding period of the last fiscal thanks to increase in import volume and inflation.

NBR on Sunday submitted a report to Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman on reasons of missing the import duty target.

According to the report, although import of petroleum products increased by 34 percent or Tk 782 crore, duty incidence fell by six percent or Tk 600 crore during the nine months due to cut in duty rate.

Import of sugar increased by Tk 246 crore or 38 percent during July-March period in comparison with the same period but cut in tax rate resulted in decrease of Tk 259 crore as import duty.

Besides, import of ship scrap increased by 280 percent or by Tk 1,657 crore but duty collection from the sector declined by Tk 468 crore due to imposition of specific duty.

According to the NBR report, the total imports in the first nine months of the current financial year grew by 33.68 percent or Tk 11,569 crore to reach Tk 45,912 crore.

The import of tax-free items rose by 45.58 percent or Tk 5,296 crore to top Tk 16,917 crore. The import of taxable goods rose by only 27.60 percent or Tk 6,272 crore to reach Tk 28,995 crore, it observed.

So, NBR suffered a Tk 1,214-crore revenue deficit during this period at import level. Against a targeted import tax collection of Tk 11,776 crore, it could realise Tk 10,561 crore, the report added.