The Government will increase income tax, withholding tax, pay-as-you-earn tax and value added tax to levels before the 2019 controversial tax cuts which reduced fiscal revenue to a paltry 8.6 percent of gross domestic product when it should be between 13 and 14 percent.
The first to be hiked will be income and PAYE taxes, Finance Minister Ali Sabry told the Sunday Times. “VAT is the last thing I want to raise because that will have a direct impact on consumer pricing,” he said. “All these taxes need to be revisited so we can take revenue collection back to 13-14 percent of GDP.”
Mr Sabry would not commit to a time frame and said it had to be decided whether the increase would be in stages or outright. The objective is to go to the levels of taxation existed before the 2019 reductions which economists have widely criticised as having contributed to the present crisis.
To read more, check the Sunday Times print edition here.
Popular grade five tuition teacher, Hayeshika Fernando wanted over assaulting a 21 year old youth was granted bail today after she surrendered to courts.
A British national had been arrested over attempting to smuggle in the largest haul of kush( drugs) from Thailand, customs said.
The Government of Sri Lanka maintains that the allegation of genocide during the final phase of the conflict in Sri Lanka is unsubstantiated by any credible authority, either nationally or internationally, and is based on misleading information. Sri Lanka firmly rejects this false narrative and believes it has been propagated primarily for electoral gains within Canada.
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