Tax revenue misses IMF target in 1st quarter!​

Abstract

According to the 2022 Annual Report from the Ministry of Finance, tax revenue for the first quarter of 2023 experienced a surge of 56%, amounting to LKR 578 billion. This was a increase from the LKR 370 billion collected during the same period in 2022. Despite this growth, the Q1 2023 tax revenue collection fell short of the target set in agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which was LKR 650 billion, by 11%. Moreover, the tax-to-GDP ratio for the first quarter of 2023 was reported to be 7.9%. This is lower than the annual target of 9.7% agreed upon with the IMF, indicating a gap of 1.8 percentage points that needs to be bridged in order to meet the target agreed upon with the IMF for the year.