Three Bills certified by Speaker

Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne today announced that he has certified three bills passed in Parliament.

Accordingly, the three Bills which will have effect are as follows: the Social Security Contribution Levy (Amendment) Act, No. 24 of 2025, the Betting and Gaming Levy (Amendment) Act, No. 25 of 2025, and the Strategic Development Projects (Amendment) Act, No. 26 of 2025.

The main theme of the Social Security Contribution Levy (Amendment) Bill was to amend the Social Security Contribution Levy Act, No. 25 of 2022.

The Betting and Gaming Levy (Amendment) Bill was aimed at amending Section 2 of the principal enactment.

Therefore, the amendments made seek to the operation of the rate of 10 percent for gross collections should be restricted to the period between 1st April 2023 and 1st October 2025, increase the rate of the levy payable on gross collections for individuals carrying on a bookmaking business or a gaming business to 18 percent from 1st October 2025 and the casino entry tax paid by Sri Lankan nationals will be increased to USD 100.

The Strategic Development Projects (Amendment) Bill was moved in order to facilitate the amendment of the Strategic Development Projects Act, No.14 of 2008.

Accordingly, the following are the amendments reducing the maximum term of the tax holiday from 25 years to 10 years, initiating a new process of project identification, mandating that all projects submitted to the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) go through a prior cost-benefit analysis by the Ministry of Finance before any tax exemption or concession is granted, the enactment of new guidelines on ex-ante monitoring by the BOI, the power to impose administrative penalties, limit or cancel exemptions on grounds of non-compliance concerning key performance indicators, making the filing of tax returns compulsory and obliging the Ministry of Finance to publish the annual report on the tax expenditure of such projects.