- Claims to have collected over Rs. 340 b in taxes this year
- Says tax collection fully automated except for SSCL
Refuting recent allegations of its online tax collection system, the Revenue Administration Management Information System (RAMIS) being inoperable, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) charged that such allegations were part of a malicious and false campaign perpetuated by certain individuals.
The IRD said that such persons were perturbed by the automation of the tax collection process, which removed opportunities for corruption.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, IRD Deputy Commissioner General (ICT Administration and Tax Operation Support) D.U.A. Jayawardhana stated that allegations regarding the purported inoperability of the system by persons who had no idea of how the system functioned were devoid of any merit.
Commenting further, he pointed out that the IRD had collected taxes amounting to around Rs. 1.5 trillion in 2023 and Rs. 340 billion in 2024 so far through the system, which proved its operability.
“If the RAMIS system is inoperable, how did we collect these taxes?” he queried.
He further revealed that under the system, the collection of all taxes except the Social Security Contribution Levy (SSCL) had been fully automated.
Even with regard to the SSCL, whilst the issuance and processing of returns are carried out manually, payments are made through the RAMIS system.
Commenting further, he stated that the rationale of the RAMIS system was to automate the tax collection process and remove human interactions to prevent the opportunity for corruption.
However, he said that this system had been heavily criticised and opposed by certain trade unions, which he charged were agitated by the inability to approach taxpayers to collect bribes.
“We are not saying that the RAMIS system is perfect. There are improvements that need to be made, which have been delayed significantly. However, such efforts are outside the purview of the IRD. Obtaining approval from the Finance Ministry has proven to be a very slow affair. It usually takes months to obtain a simple approval,” he added.
On 29 February, State Minister for Technology Kanaka Herath alleged at a media conference that the RAMIS system was an inoperable failure and that the annual fee paid for it was too high.