COLOMBO: Sixty percent of the affluent class are not paying taxes, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said adding that he Budget 2016 will make life easy for all, especially the fixed wage earners.
The minister said the government has no intention to burden wage earners.
“In terms of taxation, the rich who evade will be compelled to pay taxes while those who are compliant will not be burdened. Sixty percent of the affluent do not pay taxes. Accordingly, the economy needs to be properly structured, reformed and strengthened,” Karunanayake said adding that Budget 2016 would be one exercise.
The minister noted that 65 percent of the annual revenue is swallowed by the recurrent expenditure of the public sector salaries (Rs. 600 billion) and pension cost of Rs. 170 billion.
“If you analyse the budget cost in a different way, out of the annual revenue of Rs. 1,400 billion, Rs. 1,300 billion (93 percent) has to be incurred for debt servicing,” Karunanayake said.
The minister also revealed that the government will link the subsidies with employment. Sri Lanka spends about Rs. 220 billion annually on subsidies alone.
“According to a survey those depending on subsidy have become lazy and the government intends to transform them in to a productive work force,” he said.
