News
IRD launches Tax Week drive to raise revenue and recover defaults
View(s):By Damith Wickremasekera
The Inland Revenue Department (IRD), backed by the Excise and Customs Department, is to launch a fresh drive to collect taxes, including some Rs 780 billion listed as ‘collectable defaults’.
It will kick off with Tax Week, which begins on Monday, IRD Commissioner General Rukdevi Fernando said.
The IRD’s 2025 tax target is Rs. 2135 billion, and the department will launch several programmes starting tomorrow to educate taxpayers so that they pay taxes voluntarily, she said.
She added that there was only one million individual tax files at the moment, and this has to be increased. “Many people, including those who have registered as taxpayers, do not understand how to pay their taxes. During tax week we will carry out many educational programmes,” Ms. Fernando said.
She said the aim was to change the public attitude toward tax payments and resolve the problem people faced in paying taxes.
IRD’s Senior Assistant Commissioner and IRD Staff Officers Association Secretary J.T. Chandana said the Tax Week programme had been prepared with the Presidential Secretariat, and they hoped it would be successful.
“We expect that with the launch of the Tax Week, tax revenue will go up to around Rs 250 billion from next month,” he said.
The Tax Week activities include tax seminars, tax clinics in urban council areas, a new tax registration drive, onsite registration booths and a digital registration initiative.
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