The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) was recently questioned by the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) whether the government is properly receiving the Value Added Tax (VAT) paid by the public for various goods, the Parliamentary Communications Department said in a statement.

At present, about 13,000 institutions have registered for VAT. The IRD officials said that they are investigating the payment of VAT to the government by those institutions. The committee pointed out that the institutions that collect VAT from the public should prepare a system to receive the taxes correctly to the government.

This was discussed when the COPA members met in Parliament earlier this week under the chairmanship of State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna to examine the Auditor General’s reports and current performance of the IRD for the years 2019, 2020, and 2021, the statement mentioned.

The committee chairman asked the officials whether there is a possibility to take over and maintain the RAMIS computer system in the IRD itself. However, the department’s officials informed the COPA that they cannot take over and maintain the system due to the lack of proper human resources.

It was revealed at the committee meeting that 6 institutions have already been connected to the RAMIS computer system and that the Department of the Registrar of Companies is experiencing delays in getting connected to the RAMIS system due to some technical reason. Accordingly, the committee recommended that the Department of the Registrar of Companies immediately upgrade their system and connect with the RAMIS system. The COPA members also called for a report on its progress before January 01, 2023.

The COPA chairman also instructed to provide a comprehensive report on the tax levied under several classifications as well as a complete report on the arrears of Rs. 943 billion to be collected to the committee, it said.

The committee also asked the officials about the registration of new taxpayers. According to the officials, about 198,253 new taxpayers have been registered so far in 2023. The IRD officials further commented that it has been identified that there are about 16 million citizens over the age of 18 and special programs are being implemented to include them in the tax payment process.

State Ministers Mohan Priyadarshana de Silva, Prasanna Ranaweera, Chamara Sampath Dasanayake, Diana Gamage, Members of Parliament Tissa Attanayake, A. L. M. Ataullah, Ashok Abeysinghe, Manjula Dissanayake, Weerasumana Weerasinghe and a group of government officials were present at this meeting, according to the Parliamentary Communications Department.