Tax Collections Up Even as Smoking Drops

Sri Lanka managed to increase tobacco tax collections while reducing tobacco consumption over the past decade, reports Xinhua.

According to State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, tobacco consumption in Sri Lanka declined by 41.9 percent between 2015 and 2023. During the same period, the state’s revenue increased by 36 percent.

In 2015, Sri Lankans smoked 3.96 billion cigarettes, whereas by 2023, this figure had dropped to 2.3 billion cigarettes, Siyambalapitiya said.

Despite this reduction, the state’s revenue from cigarette taxes rose from LKR81.15 billion ($262 million) in 2015 to LKR110 billion in 2023, the state minister said.

In the past two years alone, cigarette consumption decreased by 17 percent, while tax revenue increased by 6 percent.