Failure to meet WHO cigarette tax benchmark costs Govt. Rs. 25 b, says Verité

Wednesday, 15 July 2026 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Government of Sri Lanka lost over Rs. 25 billion in potential tax revenue since 2025 due to cigarettes being taxed lower than the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark, Verité Research said yesterday.

The WHO recommends a minimum tax share of 75% of the retail price of cigarettes. Sri Lanka last came close to this benchmark in 2018 (74%) but has since failed to maintain it, with the tax share falling to 67% from 2025 onwards.

The tax revenue loss was over Rs. 8 billion during the first six months of 2026 alone. This is revealed in the ‘Cigarette Tax Leakage Tracker,’ a new online dashboard launched by Verité Research to monitor these fiscal losses minute-by-minute.

The dashboard can be seen on PublicFinance.LK, Sri Lanka’s premier platform for public finance insights and analysis. https://dashboards.publicfinance.lk/cigarette-tax-leakage/