Inland revenue crosses Rs 1 tn mark in 2019 | Daily News

Inland revenue crosses Rs 1 tn mark in 2019

Inland Revenue Collection has grown by 13 percent and crossed the Rs 1 trillion mark in 2019. Revenue collection for the year of 2019 was Rs. 1.025 trillion while in 2018 it was Rs. 900.30 billion.

Inland Revenue’s collection is now 6.83 percent of GDP rising from 6.27 percent the year before. Of the Rs 105 billion collected in Nation Building Tax Rs 34 billion were remitted to the provincial council system. Rs 14 billion collected in Stamp Duty were remitted to the provincial council system. Figures were made available to the public in the annual performance review of the Inland Revenue Department to the Parliament of Sri Lanka.

The total number of registered taxpayers in 2019 was 1.7 million. There are 1.5 million income taxpayers with 1.1 million people coming through the PAYE scheme. There are 56,460 registered companies paying tax.

The cost of collecting tax has risen from Rs 4.13 billion in 2018 to Rs 4.53 billion in 2019. The IRD has, however, become more efficient as the cost of collection per Rs 100 has however reduced from Rs 0.46 to Rs 0.44. Sri Lanka is looking to have a 60:40 split on direct and indirect tax with the current ratio being close to 20:80. E-filing of tax returns introduced in 2017 remains less than 5 per cent of total tax returns.