Any government in the world uses taxes as a main way to secure its income but we are very careful when talking about the Inland Revenue Act and related income and expenses, Professor Janak Kumarasinghe of the Business Studies Department at Sri Jayewardenepura University said.

He said that the imposition of new taxes will affect employment and unemployment, the income and expenses of a business and the consumption of the general public in the country.

Commenting further, he also said the government is trying to tell the world to downgrade the country’s status from lower middle income to low income.

“The government that tries to portray Sri Lanka as a poor country to the world is working hard to collect maximum taxes from the poor in the country. This shows a complete contradiction in managing the economy. If we are poor, the government should work actively to boost the economy and create new investment opportunities. Taxes have been imposed instead depriving even the opportunities given to start new businesses. More taxes discourages new businesses. This economy, which has not enabled new income generating avenues, has imploded.”

“A negative economic growth causes further collapse and shrinking of the economy. This is like squeezing people’s life out of them and telling them to breathe at the same time. What the government should have done was to create new sources of income. Government revenue should be increased while expenditure related to fiscal policy should be reduced. However, the government has focused only on increasing revenue without paying attention to cutting costs. People who are responsible for this crisis have placed the burden on the people. We can see that they are trying to stay in power in the future by placing all the burden on the people and by rescuing those who have committed fraud and corruption.” he said.