COLOMBO, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka registered a 21 percent increase in tax revenue collection in 2019 compared to 2018, local media quoting Inland Revenue Department (IRD) Commissioner General Nadun Guruge said here on Monday.
According to Guruge, the IRD provisionally collected 4.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, narrowly missing the target of 4.4 billion dollars.
Guruge said that the IRD's performance in 2019 saw a respectable 21 percent increase compared to 2018's total tax revenue collection of 3.5 billion dollars.
In 2019 alone, the IRD opened 10,000 new tax files and filed 434 cases against defaulters.
Guruge said that the tax revenue target for 2020 has not been set yet as the IRD is waiting for a decision by the Ministry of Finance.
He noted that tax revenues in 2020 will likely be lower due to the widespread tax reliefs announced in December last year. But the boost to aggregate demand caused by the tax reliefs will widen the tax net and increase tax revenue in the medium-term, he added.
In December 2019, the Sri Lankan government announced wide-ranging tax reliefs including reductions in the Value Added Tax (VAT), abolition of certain taxation categories, and tax exemptions for economic sectors such as agriculture, fisheries and livestock.
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