Govt targets Rs 1,000 bn tax revenue in 2012

Indunil Hewage

The government will target a tax revenue of Rs 1,000 billion for 2012, from different tax sources, said Deputy Treasury Secretary P.A Abeysekera.

He expresses this sentiment yesterday at a ceremony organized by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) to open a ‘one stop shop’ for tax facilitation at the IRB Head Office.

The newly opened ‘one stop shop at IRD for tax facilitation will provide tax consultancy services for general public as well as for around 400,000 registered income tax payers across the country for free of charge. In a bid to further create public awareness on the tax system of Sri Lanka, IRD for the first time has organized a tax week from November 1 to 8 and they are hoping to widen the tax net and woo more than 500 new tax payers next year.

“Success of any tax system is highly depended on higher tax compliance towards tax system by its citizens. Educating the public and registering tax payers in taxation and its importance to the country as well as to the citizen are the responsibility of tax administrators.

IRD is in its effort to educate the General Public about the importance of ‘taxation’, and thereby increase the higher tax compliance, within the framework of good tax culture, creating an efficient tax administration in the country,” Director General of Inland Revenue, Mallika Samarasekera said.

Sri Lanka's major revenue collector, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) alone collects approximately Rs 400 billion per annum and IRD will target revenue of Rs. 512 billion for 2012. This is an increase of Rs. 70 billion as against the previous year. Director General of Inland Revenue, Mallika Samarasekera said this figure was 328 billion in 2011 and said that they contribute more than 50 % to the government revenue. Up to September this year they had collected Rs. 369 billion.