Laws coming to impose new taxes

Legislation to give effect to several new taxes is set to be approved by Parliament the following week in keeping with the Government’s Budget proposals for this year. They include the Environment Conservation Levy, a levy on cordless land telephones as well as a new tax on motor vehicles imported into the country.

The Bills were presented to Parliament last week and are to be taken up for debate when the House meets again next week. Under an Amendment to the Finance Act, the Mobile Telephone Subscriber Levy will be extended to cordless land telephones which will be charged at 10 per cent of the total call charges for a month.The Environment Conservation Levy will be imposed on households and on identified items imported or manufactured in the country as well as specified services provided in Sri Lanka which are likely to have a harmful impact on the environment.

The rate and the items on which the Levy are to be imposed will be gazetted by the Minister once the Bill is passed in Parliament. This levy is to be collected from households through the relevant telephone bill, by the relevant telecommunications provider and is to paid to the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRC).

In the other categories, Customs will collect the levy and remit it to the Consolidated Fund. The Social Responsibility Levy imposed on a Company’s income tax will also be increased from one per cent to 1.5 per cent and will be effective from April this year while a levy called the Regional Infrastructure Development Levy will be imposed on motor vehicles at the point of import. This tax will not apply to auto rickshaws but will apply to several specified categories of vehicles.