Sri Lanka’s Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) was informed by Finance Ministry officials that the national fiscal performance in the first half of 2025 has surpassed total revenue in the same period in 2024 - surpassing the mid-year target, a statement released by the CoPF said.

“Accordingly, the Sri Lankan government has reported a strong fiscal performance for the first half of 2025 compared to the total revenue for the first six months of 2024, exceeding the mid-year target, officials from the Ministry of Finance informed the Committee,” the statement said.

Presenting data, Finance Ministry officials pointed out that the total revenue collected from the half-yearly estimated income of Rs. 2,241 billion from January-June was Rs. 2,318 billion, which exceeded the half-yearly estimate by 3%.

Meanwhile, the total government expenditure in the first half of 2025 was Rs. 3,467 billion, an increase of Rs. 367 billion compared to the expenditure in the first six months of 2024.

The main reason for this increase has been debt servicing, which was Rs. 1,984 billion in the first half of 2025. Recurring expenditure on essential public services, including public sector salaries, pensions, social security programmes such as ‘Aswesuma’ and ‘Samurdhi’, has also increased, Finance Ministry officials said.

Furthermore, the Sri Lanka Customs Department has recorded a revenue of Rs. 996 billion between January-June, recording a growth of 47% compared to the year 2024 (January-June). The revenue received from the import of automobiles contributed significantly to this growth, which had received Rs. 429 billion.

Since the opening of vehicles for import, 220,026 vehicles have been imported into Sri Lanka so far, of which 154,537 vehicles have been cleared by Sri Lanka Customs, the Finance Ministry officials pointed out.

Furthermore, the members of the committee also inquired from the Sri Lanka Customs Department about the issues faced by importers due to the time taken at Customs for container clearance activities of 9-10 days.

Accordingly, the departmental officials informed the committee that a method is being developed to resolve the issue and complete the clearance of the relevant goods within 2-3 days.

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) also reported an increase, reporting an income of Rs. 1,040,388 million out of the estimated income of Rs. 1,022,691 million in the first half of 2025. Here, the departmental officials pointed out that TIN (Tax identification number) numbers have been issued for about 1.3 million Sri Lankans over the age of 18.

Here, the Chairman questioned whether the expected economic growth target for this year can be achieved based on this data. However, Finance Ministry officials said that it can be assumed that economic growth will be around 3.1% this year.

The Chairman of the Committee also instructed the officials to take steps to inform the Committee about the policy of the Ministry of Finance regarding the tax policy applied to cigarettes.

The Committee also discussed the discrepancy between the forecasts made by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Finance regarding the country’s foreign reserves at the end of the year.