TAXING TIMES A recent report published in a Sunday newspaper says that Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) has asked the powers that be “to explain their continuing failure to recover as much as Rs. 773 billion in taxes, penalties and interest, against the backdrop of unprecedented new tax hikes to bridge the record deficit.”

GMOA Secretary Dr. Haritha Aluthge is quoted as saying that “the government should have gone flat out to recover taxes, penalties and interest owed by various entities before new revenue generation measures were proposed.”

“The shocking disclosure made by the Auditor General (AG) that the Revenue Administration Management Information System (RAMIS) installed at a staggering cost of over 10 billion rupees to ensure smooth collection of revenue has yet to be fully and properly operational paints a bleak picture,” he adds.

There is of course the unbridled spread of tax evasion, not only in the wake of the previously disbanded Pay As You Earn or PAYE system of tax collection on earnings from employment but also by others whose income isn’t disclosed to the authorities – whether or not there’s an Inland Revenue Department (IRD) stipulation to file tax returns annually!

So as honest working people earning in excess of Rs. 100,000 a month prepare themselves for more misery, courtesy the massive tax hikes announced in Budget 2023, one wonders whether the rogues will continue to go scot free – as they have done over the years.

– Editor-in-Chief