IMF tells govt. to tax all those who earn above Rs.45,000 per month

25 January 2023 02:27 pm Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 27 Bookmark

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Government spokesman, Minister Bandula Gunawardana said yesterday that the IMF has instructed the Sri Lankan government to tax all those who draw a salary or a monthly income of over Rs. 45,000 but this proposal has not been accepted by the government.

Gunawardena said that the government will maintain its policy of imposing taxes only on those who earn a monthly income of Rs.100,000 or more.

Gunawardena said President Ranil Wickremesinghe had revealed this IMF proposal to the cabinet on Monday.

“I disclose this to you to explain the difficulties faced by the government on a daily basis. The simple theory is that our expenditure is more than double the income. But we have to import essential food commodities, drugs, oil and gas, raw material for the industry notwithstanding our severe financial constraints. The banks do not release us loans and does not open letters of credit to settle import bills as we have declared bankruptcy and defaulted loan payments. All state functions like payment of salaries of public servants and pensions, payments for food imports, oil and coal payments and loan interests are done after collecting tax revenue on a daily basis. The situation in the country is so grave,” Gunawardana said addressing the weekly post cabinet news briefing.

He explained the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) faces an expenditure of Rs. 5 billion to supply uninterrupted power during the GCE A/L examination from January 23 to February 17 but the government power monopoly cannot absorb this loss.

As such the CEB with the approval of the PUCSL will restrict the power cut to 2 hours from current 2 hours and 20 minutes. The CEB’s monthly income is Rs. 35 billion in January and it needs Rs. 38 billion to purchase oil alone.

Under these circumstances, the government is not in a position to increase the ceiling of taxable monthly income or salaries of private and public sector employees, Gunawardana said. (Sandun A. Jayasekera)

Comments - 27

Mahesh Ranathunge Wednesday, 25 January 2023 02:40 PM

Ministers begging money from citizens to continue with their luxuries

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Ian B Wednesday, 25 January 2023 02:46 PM

Why are you going through difficulties? We never asked you to do so. Resign and have elections....

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Ranga Wednesday, 25 January 2023 02:47 PM

Of course Sri Lanka should tax everyone not a selective bunch of people

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Lal Wednesday, 25 January 2023 02:52 PM

NO ONE LIER

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Mohan Wednesday, 25 January 2023 02:52 PM

That would mean taxing the beggars on the street as well!

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jayantha Wednesday, 25 January 2023 03:00 PM

Is the IMF pushing the country in to a CIVIL WAR?

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Mizaru Wednesday, 25 January 2023 03:01 PM

Make the IMF proposals public. Then the public will believe what you say. Earlier the chief clown stated he wanted only to tax above Rs. 200,000 but the IMF insisted on Rs. 100,000. Who is liking?

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Mohan Wednesday, 25 January 2023 03:04 PM

Most shop owners don't issue bills for the items they sell. It is unfair to tax the middle income people while letting off the wealthy businessmen.

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MJSA Wednesday, 25 January 2023 03:05 PM

US Dollars 123

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Lion Wednesday, 25 January 2023 03:06 PM

Track record of this man has shown us in several occasions in recent past that he comes out with blatant lies .so don’t accept it.

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Eper Wednesday, 25 January 2023 03:08 PM

Please follow India , whose tax free allowance is INR 75.000 per month and applied to All equally.

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Dharmatileke Wednesday, 25 January 2023 03:11 PM

Everyone should pay tax. There must be a sum tax free, if there are loans to be paid part of the amount should be tax free the remaining amount should be taxed , for example if the remaining sum is SLR 60000 the person should be taxed around 3 to 5% and the next 25000 so on …

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Tax Payer Wednesday, 25 January 2023 03:35 PM

This man is clever at explaining the difficulties faced by the Government. Why doesn't he explain the reason for the Government keep appointing more Ministers in addition to the large number of useless fellows already appointed as State Ministers .

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Ram Wednesday, 25 January 2023 03:41 PM

IMF is not keen to provide help and is dictating us to do the impossible

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Sunil Wednesday, 25 January 2023 03:45 PM

We can clearly see which way the bull is turning.

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Jef Wednesday, 25 January 2023 03:46 PM

OMG OR ANYONE first should make majority poor middle-class living effortability they need to work on earning colum and expense colum then you can tax a percentage the Rich the businesses etc..have a lion share tax system the country have gone backwards due to poor tax system to provide security for poor 75 percent are in the poor middle-class bracket ask IMF if they can provide a better mechanism

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Disgusted Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:06 PM

Why doesn't the IMF as the Government to take necessary action to RECOVER all the monies that were drained out by the Rajapaske Clan and their side kicks FIRST, instead of taxing at 45,000.00 per month. Why not make it 75,000.00. since the cost of living is sky high. Sorry to say Mr. President your times up, call a General Election at least the masses will have some respect for you though you have done very little since taking up office.

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Disgusted Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:19 PM

Sorry Mohan, but you can be rest assured if a receipt is not given it gets into the pockets of the businessmen (cash in their hands) and not accounted for tax purposes. Small businesses need to follow the standard simple rules, if a small business operator has to capacity to start up a business, his priority is to see that his business is run ethically, all transactions should be legal, bills and receipts should be compulsory. Honesty and integrity are far more important than having cash in hand. As for the overloaded public service, immediate action should be taken to reduce the numbers to a minimum and this goes for the government, armed forces too.

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Eshan Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:56 PM

So as I take it the government has been able to set the tax free threshold to Rs. 100,000, rather than the Rs. 45,000 as initially recommended

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Taxing more only way to get IMF bailout Wednesday, 25 January 2023 05:17 PM

All blaming foreign dollar creditors, but government can't even do the basics of tax requirement by IMF. Why should IMF give any bailout if government can't do taxation as expected?

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PUCSL is causing no end of trouble in the nation Wednesday, 25 January 2023 05:25 PM

IMF is surely watching about CEB, since it is government owned, and any losses it has are actually losses to the government. Sooner the CEB is made well profitable, the easier the negotiation will be about tax thresholds. With how it is, IMF may even ask everyone over 10,000 be taxed to cover the CEB losses. Sooner fool PUCSL staff realise they can't just look at the short term prevent CEB tariff increases the better.

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Lloyd Perera Wednesday, 25 January 2023 05:27 PM

Hasn't IMF issued instructions to President not increase the number of Cabinet Minsters but to reduce in order to cut down a massive cost ,that will be utilized out of the Taxes Collected from the poor general public???

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Buddhist Wednesday, 25 January 2023 06:07 PM

This is another excuse by the Govt to show a reason for not getting IMF funding. Govt is blocked by China and still, the Govt wants to give the port project to China.

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Ravi Wednesday, 25 January 2023 07:07 PM

If the government spent the public money carefully then we wouldn’t be in this situation. So the ministers should pay 50% tax if they want to stay in politics. Also if they accumulated wealth during their term through illegal activities ie commissions, etc, then they need to pay an additional wealth tax, so that the ordinary people are not affected as well

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sam Wednesday, 25 January 2023 07:47 PM

Daily paid labourer also earn more than 50000 which is insufficient to survive. Some people are out of their mind.

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Percy Wijenayake Thursday, 26 January 2023 09:56 AM

IMF is not wrong, people want foreign food and racketeering in local produce, inefficiency of the public service all adds up to problems. We are Speechless, Government is Clueless, and Politicians are Worthless.

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Roshanaly Thursday, 26 January 2023 03:20 PM

Instead of Taxing, the IMF should order the Government to reduce the number of Minister in the Parliament.

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