Taxes in Sri Lanka are expected to rise with the inclusion of recommendations of the Presidential Taxation Commission in their budget proposals but efforts would be made to reduce the burden on the people, a senior Finance Ministry official said.
The Commission was appointed by the President last year to review the current tax structure and recommend ways of increasing tax revenue while rationalising the structure. Its interim report is to be handed over to the President soon and, according to the official, it is expected to contain recommendations to increase tax revenue this year to a projected Rs 77.9 billion, up Rs 12.2 billion from Rs 65.7 billion in 2009.
However, he said, there won’t be any additional taxes on the public suggesting that the revenue increase may come from non-public tax sources. The Department of Inland Revenue plans to increase total revenue for 2010 to Rs. 443 billion from Rs 320 billion in 2009, a difficult task given a fall in collections last year.
The official said they planned to widen the tax base to increase the number of taxpayers while reducing the number of taxes under the proposed new system. |
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