Shortage of officers will hinder next year’s tax collection target: union

A severe shortage of collection officers will make the one trillion rupees tax collection target for next year impossible, the union representing staff officers at the Inland Revenue Department said. 

J.T.Chandana, Secretary to the IRD’s Staff Officers Association said there is a shortage of about 300 officers. 

“With increase of taxes and the new Inland Revenue Act introduced, our workload is increasing at a rapid pace. Apart from that we have also been given a target of one trillion rupees to be collected as taxes next year. Majority of the vacancies that need to be filled are collection officers,” he said. 

He said the shortage of officers has been an issue for the past seven years. 

“Seventy officers who have already passed the examinations are yet to be recruited. In order to achieve the target collection next year, the number of officers recruited should be increased,” he said, adding that the Department is under-resourced especially when it comes to technology devices. 

“We are in need of more computers,” he said. 

At last month’s Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) it was revealed that a staggering Rs.773 billion is due to the Inland Revenue Department as tax arrears, penalties and interest as at June 30 this year. 

At the same meeting, the Auditor General pointed out despite spending over Rs. 10 billion rupees, the Revenue Administration Management Information System (RAMIS) at the department is not functioning properly.  

COPA Chairman Kabir Hashim pointed out that the government’s expected tax revenue in 2022 was 1852 billion rupees and plans to increase it to 3130 billion rupees in the 2023 budget.