Category: Economy

The value added tax is to unified to a single 15 per cent rate from January 2004, from the current 10 and 20 per cent, while the government has abandoned plans to bring wholesale and retail trade into the VAT system.Finance Minister K. N. Choksy says 70 per cent of the VAT revenue now comes […]

All public servants will get a 10 percent pay hike each month in the new budget or a minimum Rs.1250 increase, whichever is higher, at a cost of Rs.12.5 bn to the state.This will be the highest increase for public sector workers in the last ten years and will also apply to the Police, the […]

Personal tax exemption threshold would be raised to Rs 300,000 from the current Rs 240,000 and the income slabs widened, with effect from 2004/2005.rnrnrnrnrnrnNew Page 1rnrnrnrnrn rnrnrn rn rn rn

The government is coming up with a series of housing loan packages targeted at different segments, to help spur a construction boom.The housing programmes will have four components based on the levels of affordability of different categories of peoplern rnUnder its lquote homeownership campaign, the Treasury will allocate Rs. 800 mn next year, to build […]

Giving a leg up to the local tourist trade, the government plans to develop Maskeliya and Puttalam as a future hotspot for the travel trade.Finance Minister K N Choksy says the lagoons in these regions will be developed to be a major resort area, with funds pumped in to expand the Bentota resort stretch.rn rnChoksy […]

Sri Lanka Wednesday announced it was shedding 300,000 state-sector jobs and offered a generous severance package that will effectively pay employees to stay at home for the rest of their lives.rnFinance Minister K. N. Choksy said the public sector reforms included a 30 percent trimming of the 1.09 million workforce, but instead of job cuts […]

Stockbrokers are sitting on a potential gold mine as a result of a new tax on equity trading proposed in the budget.rnrnrnrnrnrnNew Page 2rnrnrnrnrn A 15rnpercent tax on trading profits on share transactions, is just one of the newrntaxes slapped by the UNFs third budget, to strengthen governments finances.rn Equityrnmarket investors are the ones who […]

A blocked nose and bad cold ridden throat could not keep away Finance Minister K N Choksy, adorned in a blue checkered tie, from walking down the pink carpeted parliament aisles with the budget tucked away in a wood finished briefcase in one hand to come present the 2004 fiscal plan on a rained out […]

Finance Minister K N Choksy made the strongest statement yet that the government is committed to a strong rupee policy.ldblquote Sri Lankans have accepted with complacency and resignation the concept of a weak rupee prevailing indefinitely dblquote , Minister Choksy said, during the round up of recent economic developments presented shortly before the budget proposals.rn […]

A new tax called Economic Service Charge (ESC) of one percent over turnover or assets will come into effect next year, in an attempt to net in firms not paying government taxes.ESC will be slapped as an advance collection on the final tax payable on companies, including BOI firms, with a turnover in excess of […]

Two new export-processing zones will spring up next year, as part of the governments plans to spur economic activity.As Lanka Business Online reported on Tuesday, a second export zone will come up in Keragala, Biyagama in addition to another location in Pannala.rn rnFinance Minister K N Choksy says, the Board of Investment (BOI) is faced […]

The Board of Investment will tap into the local bond market, to raise up to Rs.2 bn to fund a new Economic Trade Zone, north of Biyagama. The second Economic Trade Zone called Biyagama II is to be rolled out in Wednesdays budget, and housed on a 300-acre stretch of land. rn rnldblquote We will […]