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Tax office open for Biz today as amnesty ends
The Tax Division of the Inland Revenue Department is to be kept open today to permit the public to make their declarations. The Tax Division will be open from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. today, the last day for the government's controversial Income, Customs and Excise tax amnesties.

The deadline, which was to expire on June 30, was first extended until August 15 and thereafter extended until today. The Government has decided that there will be no other extensions.

More than 50,000 individuals and companies making use of the tax amnesty offer made by the government, have declared their intention of paying up taxes, Deputy Finance Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.

A majority of the 50,000 is in respect of income tax, while 78 and 2 applications have been made for matters relating to Customs and Excise taxes, respectively.
The Director General of Customs and the Commissioner General of the Excise Department told The Sunday Times that they have informed the Finance Ministry about these applicants and are awaiting necessary instructions from the Ministry on steps to be taken.

Mr. Gunawardena said, this is the first occasion where such a large number of people had made use of an amnesty to make a declaration to the Inland Revenue Department.

Protests against direct police recruitment
Steps are afoot to recruit 30 Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASPs) direct to the police service despite protests from many junior officers some of whom who are awaiting promotions to the rank after completing more than 12 years in the rank of Inspector.

The Sunday Times learns that the proposal has already been submitted to the Finance Ministry for approval. It has also been proposed to recruit 300 Sub-Inspectors (SIs) as well.

The Inspectors Association of Sri Lanka had already lodged a protest with the IGP stating that direct recruitment to the service was frustrating the men in the ranks of SI and IP as they were being denied their due promotions after many years of service.

"As ASPs are recruited directly around the age of 25 and fill the existing vacancies and then move on to higher ranks they stagnate there till they are 60 years old thus denying many of the deserving men their due promotions," the Association’s President IP Dale Gunaratne said.

He said it was the men in the lower ranks who handle most of the day-to-day work of the police service but have not not been aptly rewarded for their work. The Association has sought a meeting with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe to take up their grievances with him.

PA backs out; MPs' foreign tour called off
The study tour for a group of local legislators has been called off after President Chandrika Kumaratunga had ordered PA MPs not to participate in it. The tour organised by the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the UNDP was a two-week tour of South Africa and Germany by MPs to study the working of parliamentary committees in these countries.

Speaker Joseph Michael Perera was to head the delegation but after the PA MPs pulled out of it, it was decided that the other MPs too would not participate.
Parliament sittings in the first week of September too were cancelled to enable the MPs to make the tour but it did not materialise. Accordingly Parliament will meet only on the fourth week of next month.

The President had said that she wanted the oversight committees proposed by the government to start functioning first before such tours were undertaken.

'Sex master' further remanded
The fake school master who entered Royal College to give lessons in 'sex education" was refused bail and further remanded until September 12 by the Fort Magistrate Court when he was produced in court on Friday.

When the case was taken up in courts police requested for additional time to conduct investigations into the youth's teacher qualification, after a certificate issued by the National Institute of Education in Maharagama was found in his possession.

Police informed court that they need to record a statement from the youth's mother and a second statement from the suspect before completing the investigation.
Court granted time till September 12 for the police to carry out a full investigation into the youth.

The 21 year old youth who had visited Royal College for the last four months was nabbed by a female security guard who suspected his movements. According to police the suspect has been using three names.

The suspect Rajapakse Gandara Sumith Bandara alias Thusitha Bandara, had used the name Mano Kaushalaya at Royal College. The suspect had on several occasions entered unattended classrooms and spoken of homosexuality and invited the students to witness live acts. The fake master was arrested when he was teaching in a Year Seven class in the absence of a teacher.

Police investigations so far have revealed the bogus sex master came from Kandy and had earlier been a teacher at a daham pasala where he had got into trouble after allegedly borrowing Rs. 25,000 from a colleague and failing to return it.

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