by Shamindra Ferdinando

Some declarations made by various parliamentary committees about public finance often didn’t represent the actual situation, says State Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya.

Siyambalapitiya said so when The Island sought his response to criticism against the Finance Ministry and three revenue collection authorities namely the Inland Revenue, Customs and Excise department, for their failure to meet revenue targets.

The Committee of Public Enterprises (COPE), Sectoral Oversight Committee on Alleviating the Impact of the Economic Crisis, Committee on Ways and Means, Committee on National Economic and Physical Plans and Committee on Public Finance (COPF) respectively headed by Lasantha Alagiyawanne, Gamini Waleboda, Patali Champika Ranawaka, Mahindananda Aluthgamage and Dr. Harsha de Silva, have recently sought explanation from the relevant authorities regarding their failure to carry out specific instructions issued by Parliament.

The State Finance Minister emphasised that those who had been entrusted with revenue collection tasks were in overdrive. When The Island pointed out that the parliamentary committees always based their assessments on the latest available data provided by relevant revenue collection authorities, lawmaker Siyambalapitiya said of the Rs 943 bn mentioned by them as the total amount of uncollected taxes as much as 60 % to 65% had been held up in the legal process at different levels. “The Inland Revenue Department cannot be held responsible for delays caused by lengthy legal processes,” the State Finance Minister said.

Siyambalapitiya said that he wouldn’t deny the possibility of unscrupulous elements resorting to legal measures, including the appeal process to deliberately delay payments.MP Siyambalapitiya said that of the remaining 35% uncollected taxes, about 15% had been collected so far and they were keen to continue with ongoing efforts to bring the operation to a successful conclusion.

Asked whether the Attorney General’s Department had been consulted as regards inordinate legal delays, the State Minister said that there were three rounds of talks with them as well as with Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC.

Siyambalapitiya pointed out that those who had been trying to avoid taxes enjoyed the services of the best lawyers. “We cannot do anything about citizens resorting to legal measures. That is the ground reality,” MP Siyambalapitiya said, urging the parliament to instead explore ways and means to overcome the problem.

Commenting on the massive sugar duty scam perpetrated in Oct 2020, State Minister Siyambalapitiya said that so far Rs 310 mn had been recovered from six importers though altogether 12 businesses were investigated. MP Siyambalapitiya said that the CID conducted a thorough investigation into the sugar tax scam and submitted a report to the AG and was awaiting his instructions to take legal action.

The Auditor General has declared that the government suffered a loss of over Rs 16 bn due to the reduction of sugar tax from Rs 50 to 25 cents by way of a gazette issued on Oct 13, 2020.

Siyambalapitiya acknowledged that deterioration of desired standards couldn’t be rectified overnight. “However, we are making a determined effort to turn around the situation,” the SLPPer said, accusing the Opposition of attempting to exploit the current economic crisis to their political advantage.

At the recent meeting chaired by State Transport Minister Alagiyawanne, in his capacity as the Chairman of COPE, the lawmakers found fault with the Finance Ministry for neglecting its primary duties and responsibilities. The Finance Ministry representatives had been told that a proposal made in 2016 to the Finance Ministry to improve and enhance IT setups at revenue collection authorities wasn’t implemented. Therefore a committee headed by Secretaries to the President and the Premier was established to look into this matter and take whatever steps necessary to expedite the process.