It was decided at the joint meeting of Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) and the Committee on Ways and Means to appoint a technical committee under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister’s Secretary to prepare the basic plans necessary to prepare an information technology system by integrating all relevant government agencies to improve the government’s revenue.
Accordingly, a representative from the President Secretariat, Secretaries of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Technology and the Chairman of the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) are the other members of this committee.
The meeting was held under the patronage of Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, State Minister – Lasantha Alagiyawanna and the Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, Member of Parliament – Patali Champika Ranawaka.
Thus, the technical committee was informed to hold a preliminary discussion within a week after coordinating all the relevant institutions and submit the preliminary plan to the committee on May 15 and to provide a related report. It was also decided to get a progress review about this every month until this program is implemented.
President Secretariat, Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policy, Ministry of Technology, Department of Inland Revenue, Department of Excise, Department of Motor Traffic, Sri Lanka Customs, Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, Department of Agriculture, Department of Registration of Persons Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Immigration and Emigration Department and other institutions were summoned to this event.
The COPA chair expressed his strong displeasure to the government’s revenue collecting institutions, that a recommendation had been given to take necessary measures to prepare an information technology system by integrating all relevant government agencies in order to collect and improve the government revenue, but it was not implemented.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means – Patali Champika Ranawaka said that the necessary technical background, the extent to which the relevant institutions should be empowered for this should be studied and a program should be prepared.
The committee was attended by Members of the committee, State Ministers Mohan Priyadarshana Silva and Chamara Sampath Dasanayake, as well as Members of Parliament Niroshan Perera, Jayantha Katagoda, J.C Alavathuwala, (Major) Pradeep Udugoda and Sanjeewa Edirimanna.
