Sri Lanka state revenues up 8-pct to March, primary surplus

Sri Lanka’s state revenues had growth 8 percent from a year earlier to 469.1 billion rupees in the first quarter of 2018 from a year earlier, while a primary surplus had been recorded in the budget, official data shows.

But tax revenues grew only 2 percent 425.3 billion rupees up to March 2018, while not-tax revenues doubled to 43.8 billion rupees, helping boost total revenues.

Sri Lanka cut fuel taxes in December 2017, losing a key source of revenue, which has since been corrected. About 5 billion rupees a month extra is expected from market pricing fuel.

Current expenses rose 9 percent to 527.5 billion rupees, keeping pace at 3.6 percent of gross domestic product, giving a revenue deficit of 58.5 billion rupees, up from 48.2 billion rupees a year earlier.