National Tax week launched

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD)  backed by the Excise and Customs Department today  launched a fresh drive to collect taxes including some Rs.780 billion listed as ‘collectable defaults’.

Accordingly a Tax Week commenced   on Monday.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake presided over the launch the programme known as 'Badhu Shakthi'.

Commissioner General of the IRD Rukdevi Fernando said the tax target of the IRD for 2025 is RS.2135 billion and the Department will launch several programs  to educate taxpayers so that they pay taxes voluntarily.

She added that there were only one million individual tax files at the moment and this has to be increased.  “Many people, including those who have registered as tax payers, do not understand how to pay their taxes. During tax week we will carry out many educational programs in this regard,” Ms. Fernando said.

She said that the aim is to change the public attitude toward tax payments as well as resolve the problem people have in paying taxes.

J.T.Chandana, Senior Assistant Commission, IRD and Secretary of the IRD Staff Officers Association   said the program for tax week has been prepared with the Presidential Secretariat and they expect the program to be successful.

"We expect that with the launch of the tax week, tax revenue will go up to around Rs.250 billion from next month,” he said.

The activities for tax week include tax seminars, tax clinics in urban council areas, new tax registration drive, onsite registration booths and digital registration initiative.