The Easter Sunday bomb attacks had caused the government a revenue loss of Rs. 50 billion, a report which was submitted to Parliament by the Ministry of Finance revealed yesterday.
“The Mid-Year Fiscal Position Report 2019 submitted to the House revealed that an initial estimate on the impact of the Easter Sunday attacks on the government revenue in the short term indicates that the direct contribution to the government revenue by affected sectors such as finance, tourism, trade and construction, will come down by Rs. 50 billion approximately,” the report said.
The report added that the estimated loss of revenue could further increase due to the slowdown of economic activities during the remaining months in 2019.
“Economic slowdown had already hindered the collection of internal taxes namely Value Added Tax (VAT) and Nation Building Tax in addition to other taxes collected on importation of goods. The loss of government revenue has been observed from the collection of fees and charges as well. This tendency will affect the revenue targets in 2019 including primary balance, budget and debt financing,” the report added.
As per the report total government expenditure during the first four months of 2019 has been Rs. 962 billion. The recurrent expenditure during the period has been Rs. 756 billion while capital expenditure has been Rs. 211 billion. The total government revenue during the first for months this year has been Rs. 598 billion.
