Ministry of Finance has revealed that the state revenue in January 2023 increased two times compared to the same period in 2022.
According to the latest statistics published by the finance ministry, Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Tourism Goods and Services Tax (TGST) revenue increased in January 2023. The rates of GST and TGST have been changed from January 1. As such, the government approved the amendment bill to increase GST from 6% to 8% and TGST from 12% to 16%.
According to the finance ministry, the government received USD56 million in tax revenue as of January 26 compared to USD28.2 million during the same period last year. TGST accounted for the largest share of tax revenue with a total of USD45.6 million and GST collection stood at USD10.3 million.
The government has increased the tax rate to avoid economic shock and stated that raising taxes is the best step to take at the moment. The finance ministry said the government's proposed tax changes would generate a revenue of USD62.9 million from GST and USD136.2 million from TGST. Therefore, the tax changes will add USD194.5 million to the current revenue of the state.