The minister also asked the officials to detect under and over invoicing cases to stop tax evasion.

"If we can get 10 percent additional taxpayers from the fast growing services sector, we will be able to achieve the revenue target," Saifur told reporters after a meeting with the officials of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

"Importers evade huge amount of tax by under invoicing," he said, referring to detection of under invoicing in several cases of sugar imports recently.

NBR Chairman Khairuzzaman Chowdhury said achieving the target has become challenging because of reduction of customs duty in two tiers.

The government during July-September period earned a total of Tk 6947.50 crore revenue, which is 14.11 percent higher than the same period of last fiscal.

During the first quarter of the current fiscal, 19.49 percent revenue target was achieved, Chowdhury said.

"We will be able to achieve the target if the economy remains unharmed by the price hike of petroleum and essentials," Saifur said, admitting the pressure of the price hike on the economy.

He said a volatile situation is prevailing in many economies in the world due to petroleum price hike.

The minister said many community centres, construction firms, hotels and restaurants, and professionals, including lawyers, doctors and engineers, still remain out of tax net. "I have asked the NBR officials to bring them under the tax net."

However, Saifur said the revenue income is being achieved as per our expectation in budget.

Asked, Chowdhury said: "I don't know whether the target would be achieved, but the growth would be around 16 percent."

During July-September period of the current fiscal, the government earned Tk 2,222.76 crore from value added tax (VAT), an increase of 12.86 percent from the same period of the last year.

During July-September, Tk 3,588.25 crore and Tk 1,076.75 crore have been earned from import duty and income tax respectively, marking increase of 15.46 and 13.28 percent over the same period of the last fiscal year.