FinMin gets additional responsibilities with revenue agency reforms
Sri Lanka’s revenue collection agencies and the institutional framework of the Finance Ministry are to be revitalised with additional responsibilities while strengthening electronic platforms with necessary data protection systems, Finance Ministry sources said.
Among these special priorities are ensuring price stability by maintaining the annual average inflation rate at a low level, stabilising interest rates, financial and balance of payment policies and reducing unemployment giving priority to low income earners.
The institutional and legal framework pertaining to the special priorities under the Ministry of Finance have been amended.
Accordingly, an extraordinary gazette notification in this regard was issued this week indicating special priorities to strengthen the economic process in the country.
Further new changes have been made to the institutions under the purview of the Finance Ministry.
The current functions of revenue agencies including Sri Lanka Customs, Inland Revenue Department and Excise Department with various electronic platforms will be further streamlined and strengthened ensuring data protection to improve revenue collection and administration.
With the backing of the Revenue Administration Management Information System (RAMIS) and the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA), the government is pursuing further improvements in tax administration, a Finance Ministry report revealed.
These electronic platforms are being maintained efficiently and safely to commensurate the tax reforms introduced in 2019 and also in response to the disruptions caused by COVID-19, it added.
It is in this context that all limited liability companies have been facilitated at Inland Revenue Department (IRD) to file their tax returns in or outside Sri Lanka only electronically (e-filing) effective from April 2021. The Tax Identification Number (TIN) in all tax related source documents or underlying documents of the taxpayer has become mandatory.
Meanwhile, the Excise Department is in the process of introducing an IT managed revenue system in order to improve its revenue administration.
A Gazette Extraordinary has been published to further make special priority changes in connection with the institutional and legal framework of the Ministry of Finance. The State Ministry of Money and Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reform portfolio, which was under the purview of Ajith Nivard Cabraal, has been annulled after his resignation. All the functions and duties of the state ministry have been brought under the Ministry of Finance.
Accordingly 10 additional priorities have been vested in the Finance Ministry and it is now empowered to introduce reforms strengthening banks, financial institutions with the aim of encouraging savings and investments as well as to revitalise collapsed financial institutions and businesses facing liquidity issues.