Government in a tenacious effort to protect 980,000 million tax evaders

Instead of taking action to collect taxes amounting to at least Rs 980,000 million, which the government could have collected but has so far abandoned, a group headed by the State Minister of Finance is following a theory of avoidance by presenting other issues.
Finance Ministers of State Ranjith Siyambalapitiya and Shehan Semasinghe have been leaders in protecting tax collectors. In the report prepared by the Auditor General for the year 2022, it was first revealed that the tax amount of Rs 904,000 million that the government could have collected had not been collected. Although it has been more than a year since it was revealed, those tax thieves are still at large.
Meanwhile, a report from the Parliament’s Rules and Procedures Committee has uncovered that a massive sum of RS.980,000 million in recoverable tax has been abandoned. Adding insult to injury, a gazette notice issued by Finance Minister Ranil Wickrakamasinghe on March 25 reduced the tax charged for a kilo of imported rice from 65 rupees to a mere 1 rupee, effectively providing further government support to tax evaders.