Taxpayers owe over Rs. 550 bn in unpaid taxes

Sri Lankan taxpayers owe the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) more than Rs. 550 billion in outstanding taxes, senior IRD officials revealed at a special media briefing held to explain the latest tax amendments.

Officials said legal action is currently underway to recover nearly Rs. 100 billion of the outstanding amounts.

“In addition, the Department is using several other mechanisms to recover these dues,” officials said.

These measures include freezing bank accounts, attaching assets and engaging in negotiations with defaulting taxpayers to facilitate the settlement of outstanding liabilities.

The IRD also clarified that it has the legal authority to freeze bank accounts without obtaining a court order, as the relevant provisions are provided for under the Inland Revenue Act.

Meanwhile, Commissioner General of Inland Revenue Rukdevi Fernando said the Department has been assigned a tax revenue target of Rs. 2,401 billion for 2026.

“We are confident that this target can be achieved through the continued widening of the tax net,” she said.

Sri Lanka currently has around 1.3 million individual taxpayers and approximately 130,000 companies are registered as taxpayers.
(Shirajiv S.)