A profile of each person over 18 will be maintained by the Inland Revenue Department soon.
Department of Inland Revenue Deputy Commissioner General Nadun Guruge said yesterday that this was different from a tax file. However, if they find that anyone in the profile were liable to pay tax they would convert the profile into a tax file.
Similarly, if they are taxpayers any assets that have not been declared would be investigated and additional taxed collected.
He said there were tax dodgers also among professionals and they would be issued a polite letter first highlighting the fact that they were eligible to pay taxes and be invited to make their declaration 100% correctly. If they do not comply, it will have to be enforced, he said.
In Singapore, the population was 6.5 million but they have 40,000 registered for GST. But in Sri Lanka which has a population of over 22 million, only 20,000 VAT files have been opened, the Deputy Commissioner said.
“That is why we have to widen our tax base,” he said.
Guruge said they would gather all the information by interfacing the 35 institutions and urged the public to pay the correct tax and not to mess with the Department in the future and fall in trouble as they are going to address every aspect of potential tax payers with new software called RAMIS.
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