Sri Lanka govt finances on track as per budget: Ravi K

July 13, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government finances this year are on target as estimated in the last budget, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said.

“Our revenues are on target as per the last budget. Excise collections are up 40 percent,” Karunanayake told reporters without giving details.

Sri Lanka has revised down the 2016 budget deficit target to 5.4 percent of GDP, 0.5 percentage points lower than
the original budget target, in commitments made to the IMF under an extended fund facility.

Sri Lanka promised to introduce tax measures including increasing the VAT rate to 15 percent from 11 percent and remove exemptions on telecommunication services, starting from May 2016.

According to these commitments, Sri Lanka won’t exempt wholesale and retail sectors from VAT and introduce multiple VAT rates.