Govt offers special 40-year tax amnesty for Port City investors

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka is to provide a special 40-year tax amnesty for the Chinese-built Colombo Port city to attract potential investors as it has so far failed to attract major foreign direct investments after much hype since its opening for investors nearly one year ago, a senior Treasury official said. 

He noted that that the Cabinet of Ministers recently decided to offer concessions to attract investments to the Port City. 

"This decision has been taken following the measures taken by other countries to provide more competitive tax relief than Sri Lanka in order to attract investors," he said adding that if such concessions draw more foreign investors it will help address the dollar crisis in Sri Lanka. 

"This decision to give 40 year tax relief has been taken at a time where local investors in the country are eyeing to invest in other countries such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Kenya due to favourable investment opportunities," he said. 

As an initial step the Port City commission is planning to sell 100 hectares of reclaimed land with an investment target of US$ 5 billion. 

A total of 269 hectares of land was reclaimed by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) in the Port City project. (Bandula)