A senior accountant's attempt to register for the Inland Revenue Department's online tax services exposed significant gaps between Sri Lanka's digital infrastructure and actual implementation, revealing poor inter-departmental communication and continued reliance on physical documents.
A detailed account by a senior Chartered Accountant and academic highlights persistent inefficiencies within Sri Lanka's Inland Revenue Department (IRD), despite the existence of an online e-services platform. The writer's attempt to complete a routine task—registering an email for electronic services and obtaining a tax direction—required multiple visits to government offices, contradictory instructions from different units, and ultimately rejection of legitimately issued documents.
The IRD's publicly listed contact directory proved largely inaccessible, with phone numbers either unanswered or disconnected. The department's general hotline, 1944, connected the caller to pleasant but unhelpful operators unable to direct inquiries to relevant units or provide guidance on required documentation. This forced the citizen to visit the department in person despite the existence of digital channels. When email contact succeeded through higher-ranking officials, different units within the same department issued conflicting instructions, apparently unaware of each other's actions. One unit requested documents already submitted and verified by another unit in the same building.
At the IRD office, despite having already received a new Tax Identification Number and PIN electronically, the writer was turned away for lacking original copies of documents and missing a company stamp on an otherwise legitimate letter from a director. The writer notes this reflects a fundamental contradiction: the IRD markets an e-service platform while refusing to accept digitally submitted documents, making it "a paper service with a website attached." The lack of shared internal databases forces officers to repeatedly request identical documents, creating unnecessary queuing and bureaucratic friction.
The writer contrasts this with international practice, where citizens can renew passports or complete complex transactions entirely online. While acknowledging that not all taxpayers are digitally proficient, the writer argues the government should provide optional digital pathways alongside traditional services, supported by public awareness campaigns. Solving these inefficiencies would require establishing shared internal databases, centralised record-keeping accessible across units, and genuinely functional online services—not merely website facades layered over paper processes.
