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Govt.’s revenue target tumbles; big companies unable to pay taxes
View(s):The Government’s revenue targets for this year have shown further decline with all indications that even the revised targets will not be met, a senior Inland Revenue Department official said.
The Government, which started off with a revenue target of Rs 800 billion at the beginning of the year subsequently brought it down to Rs 600 billion and thereafter reduced it to Rs 470 billion.
However, a senior IRD official said the department had sought a further reduction to Rs 411 billion, but that too might not be achievable by the end of the year.
He said that in addition to tax revisions which came into effect earlier this year, the two waves of COVID-19 had severely affected the revenue collection and so far only Rs 362 billion had been collected.
He said some 600 large-scale taxpayers, including major companies, had been among those affected with a revenue decline due to the pandemic. In addition hotels and the banking sectors had also been seveely affected.“Due to the losses suffered by the companies, the IRD might not be able to collect taxes from them even next year,” he added.
Last year, the target set to the IRD was Rs 800 billion and a target of Rs 785 billion was achieved.