Tax rates will be increased, The Sunday Times reported that a senior Treasury official said that the tax rates will have to be increased in the budget to be presented for the year 2023.
The government has to spend 466 million rupees for social security, 124 million rupees for welfare assistance, 16 million rupees for welfare programs for education and 10 million rupees for health and nutrition programs this year.
The government will have to spend 1.1 trillion rupees to pay the salaries of civil servants and another 3.2 billion rupees for their pensions.
The government last week gazetted the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill to levy new taxes to boost the depleted state exchequer.
It was a follow-up to the revenue proposals announced in the August interim budget presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is also the Minister of Finance.