The government has instilled business confidence in Sri Lanka by maintaining a single digit inflation rate, said State Finance Minister, Shehan Semasinghe.

He said that this was at around 70% last year and prudent and systematic steps were taken to reduce it gradually. This is expected to be retained fewer than 5% throughout the year.

He also said that government revenue is increasing and there is also a sharp increase of new tax payers.

“The total number of registered taxpayers in 2019 was 1,705,233. It decreased to 677,613 in 2020 due to various precedent decisions.”

“In 2021, it was 507,085. We have succeeded in raising the number of tax files from 437,547 in 2022 to one million. Also, the state’s income will be Rs. 3110 billion in 2023.”

He predicted that Sri Lanka’s economic growth will be 1.7% in the third quarter of 2023. Accordingly, the overall economic growth in 2023 will be around -3%.

“But it should also be said that the overall economic growth in 2022 was -11%.”