National Tax Week was need of the hour to corner tax evading masses : IRD, Customs, Excise

• The Ministry of Finance on a concept of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake launched the National Tax Week or the programme ‘Badu Shakthi’ from June 2 – 8 and will conclude tomorrow

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

Coming to a consensus in a while, the three revenue generating arms of the Ministry of Finance namely the Department of Inland Revenue, Sri Lanka Customs and the Excise Department of Sri Lanka yesterday welcomed the national tax week saying it had enabled the public to learn more about the country’s individual tax responsibility, the Daily Mirror learns.   

The Ministry of Finance on a concept of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake launched the National Tax Week or the programme ‘Badu Shakthi’ from June 2 – 8 and will conclude tomorrow.   

Speaking to the Daily Mirror Senior Deputy Commissioner of IRD Thushara Chandana said the programme was timely and a sheer success as many tax evading individuals, entrepreneurs and enterprises especially in the Western Province had been identified during this short period.   

The commissioner however said the time allotted for the purpose was not sufficient at all as the IRD was struggling with manpower of 800 to take to streets to educate and inspect the public related to their due tax payments was not enough.   

The official who is also the Secretary of the Inland Revenue Staff Officers Association said the government should seriously consider extending this project to be implemented countrywide with ample time and staff to work on.   

When contacted, Commissioner General of Excise U L Udaya Kumara told the Daily Mirror the department had managed to run a series of raids and detections to counter illegal arrack and tobacco products.   

Since the mandate of the Excise is to regulate the liquor and tobacco sales in the country in order to generate tax revenue through legitimate trade, countering illicit products as much as possible could support the tax week in a 
sound manner.   

“We have carried out many raids during this week including a massive Rs.7.5 million duty free liquor racket and conducted a series of awareness programmes to the public,” Udaya Kumara said.   

Meanwhile, a senior official of the Sri Lanka Customs told the Daily Mirror the surveillance operations on imports and exports had been escalated during this week to seek those who operate under the Customs radar to evade tax payments.