The current economic crisis is an eye opener to many on the importance of tax education in Sri Lanka, said President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, Ranil Abeywardhene at the ‘Name Change launching ceremony 2024’ event in Colombo on Friday. “For all these years the taxation or Tax Education was considered as a part of accountancy and not being given its due place.”
“Taxation is a mixture of law, accountancy and economics. It is a distinctive art one has to master. Tax education shall not only create the profession of “Tax Consultant” but shall make people tax compliant as well.”
“Today Organization of Professional Association (OPA), the profession of Taxation, has now been recognized as an independent profession.”
“A government elected by the people has to have its own revenue to execute the implementation of the planning. Therefore, taxation shall prevail until the countries are governed by governments.”
He also said that a country like Sri Lanka, where the majority are low income earners, high rates of taxes are not conducive to sustain the growth of the economy and the wellbeing of the people.In this context, a country like Sri Lanka needs to establish a tax policy with the tagline “Wider Tax Base and Lower Tax Rates”.
The wide gap between the growth of GDP and tax revenue is a clear indication that the wealth generated by the economy is not being tapped as tax revenue. The tax buoyancy or the gap visible here has to be narrowed down to capture many into the tax net.
“To facilitate this process, the government needs to strengthen the infrastructure of the economy.”
If this gap is not narrowed down in the future, the genuine taxpayers like the present labour force who are heavily burdened up with taxes shall eternally suffer at the cost of non-taxpayers.
Abeywardhene said that the number of tax files (TIN) at the Department of Inland Revenue is not sufficient to cater the needs and wants of the entire 22 million population of Sri Lanka.
“We should be ashamed as a nation. I hope with the measures implemented to open TINs for people who are above 18 years, the number of tax files would increase.”
He also recalled that the institute has been conferred with the prestigious “Chartered” status.
“All our members who are having the titles of FTII and ATII have been bestowed with FCIT and ACIT. FCIT denotes Fellow Chartered Institute of Taxation where the ACIT denotes Associate Chartered Institute of Taxation.”
State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya was the Chief Guest while Member of the Parliament, Madura Vithanage and Governor of Central Bank, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe were the special incites.
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