National Policy Dialogue on ‘Taxation Link in Lanka’s Development: Emerging Issues’

The Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) with the support of the Poverty and Economic Policy (PEP) Network will be organising a half day seminar on ‘Taxation Link in Sri Lanka’s Development: Emerging Issues’ on 23 November.

In light of the dynamic growth expected from the post-conflict Sri Lankan economy, and the slowdown of concessionary aid financing that it has historically received owing to its impressive move towards middle income status, the need of the day is to ensure that the state has sufficient funds to support the widespread physical infrastructure developments across the country.

The lack of foreign funds means that the state needs to heavily focus on domestic revenue mobilisation – specifically, through taxation. The taxation discourse in the country seems limited to issues surrounding technical issues of tax.

Policy implications of tax changes and tax policies are rarely discussed in depth. In addition, there is a heightened debate in the country at the moment about the need to allocate more public money on vital public services provided ‘free’ to citizens.

This half-day seminar attempts to, therefore, fulfil this gap in discourse by presenting the findings of a study conducted by the IPS with the support of PEP, on the impact of tax reforms and answering questions such as ‘Will a tax on public servants improve progressivity?’

In addition, the dialogue will feature research on the vital link between taxation and development in Sri Lanka, the formidable challenge of revenue mobilisation and the fiscal policy-governance link through better budget accountability. The main presentations will be followed up with an opportunity for open discussion.