Explainer

Where does the government get its money?

Every figure on this page is read live from the government's own budget documents as parsed into the BDPolicyLab fact base, with the source document named beside it.

Where does the money come from?

In the FY2025-26 budget, the government planned to raise Tk 564,000 crore in revenue. Almost all of it is collected by the National Board of Revenue.

NBR taxes (income tax, VAT, customs)Tk 499,000 crore · 88.5%

Non-NBR taxes (stamps, land, narcotics duties)Tk 19,000 crore · 3.4%

Non-tax revenue (fees, dividends, BB profit)Tk 46,000 crore · 8.2%

Foreign grants (Tk 5,000 crore) are counted separately from revenue in Bangladesh's budget presentation. Source: gov_budget_2025_26/1 Budget at a Glance _E.pdf#p1.

How big is that, relative to the economy?

The FY2026-27 budget targets revenue of Tk 695,000 crore, about 10.2% of GDP. The last audited outcome, FY2023-24, came to Tk 409,812 crore, or 8.2% of GDP. Explore the long-run World Bank tax-to-GDP series for Bangladesh in the Data Explorer (series wb_gc_tax_totl_gd_zs).

Do revenue targets survive the year?

Rarely intact. The FY2024-25 budget was written with a revenue target of Tk 541,000 crore; by the revised budget it had been marked down to Tk 518,000 crore, a cut of -4.3% inside a single fiscal year. Reading any budget, treat the revenue line as a target, not a forecast.

Go deeper: the full FY2026-27 budget analysis, ministry-level budget explorer, or ADP execution tracker.