Economist Umesh Moramudali says Sri Lanka needs to maintain higher taxes to address decades of poor economic policies and debt-funded development.

In a social media post, Moramudali pointed out that Sri Lanka’s GDP per capita more than tripled between 1990 and 2020, while tax revenue declined from around 20% to nearly 8% of GDP.

He said government spending also declined while debt levels increased, leaving the country facing difficult economic adjustments.

Moramudali noted that the burden of correcting past policy mistakes is now falling on the middle class and professionals, whose lifestyles, education and development were partly supported by debt-funded spending.

“Now it’s time to pay back for those,” he said. (Newswire)