The Government will introduce two more new taxes, the wealth tax and the inheritance tax, next year, it was reported.
According to the Sunday Times, the two new taxes are to be introduced to raise more revenue for the state, as tax collections have failed to reach the expected revenue targets.
A report submitted to Parliament by the Committee on the Ways and Means states the Finance Ministry has been tasked with formulating the necessary legislation for these two proposed taxes.
Budget deficits created due to government expenditures being in excess of revenue has been cited as a major challenge faced by the government in collecting state revenue.
The budget deficit from January to June this year was Rs 1.24 billion, in terms of the mid-year fiscal report. This was due to the repayment of the foreign debt suspended after April last year and increased state expenditure compared to the first half of last year, with double payments of interest, as per the report.
The report also noted that the tax revenue collection carried out by three key institutions, the Customs, the Inland Revenue Department and the Excise Department, in the first half of this year (January to June) is also below the estimated tax revenue targets set in the Budget 2023.
The IRD has collected only Rs 696.94 billion (41.81 per cent) of the budget estimate of Rs 1.667 trillion so far, while the Customs has collected Rs 400.07 billion (32.79 per cent) of the estimated Rs 1.22 trillion so far, and the Excise Department has collected Rs 88.963 billion (41 per cent) of the estimated target of Rs 217 billion.
The report has also recommended upgrading the current tax-collecting digital platform, RAMIS 2.0, in view of the proposed two taxes when renewing the agreement with the Singaporean company that developed and maintains the platform. (NewsWire)