Inland Revenue back to normal

Jayasiri Munasinghe

All essential services at the Inland Revenue Department were back to normal yesterday following damage to the main Head Office building caused by the crash of an LTTE light aircraft on Friday night.

Deputy Minister of Finance and Minister of State Revenue Ranjith Siyambalapitiya visited the Head Office building in Fort yesterday and praised the dedication of the employees who brought the services of the Department back to normal within three days which were incidentally three off days. Activities relating to issuance of tax payers’ identification numbers, VAT numbers, acceptance of turnover tax returns and duty free vehicle licences were handled by the officials as from yesterday.

Branches dealing with all tax matters made necessary arrangements for the public to obtain the required services at the ground floor of the Head Office.

Addressing the employees of the Department, Minister Siyambalapitiya said that the Department providing the necessary services to the public was a small challenge when compared to other big challenges faced by them in the past.

This small challenge too, the Minister said needed to be met with very soon. This building is functioning as no great damage has been caused. “However, we hope to move over to more spacious locations to provide a better service to the general public in future, the Minister said.

Siyambalapitiya urged the employees to bear with the temporary difficulties caused to them as a result of the incident. Commissioner General of Inland Revenue S. Angammana and officials of the Department were present.