Tax made for Ghana thrust on Lanka *Even dowry and asset transfers from parents to children to be taxed *Not even assistance from President’s Fund will be spared
Posted on September 7th, 2017
By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island
JVP MP Sunil Handunnettii told Parliament yesterday that the Inland Revenue Bill has been designed to collect tax from each and every living citizen.
Handunetti said the bill was so harmful to the people that the government should include the amendments submitted by the Opposition mitigate the adverse impact. He added that the new tax proposed to collect tax from the areas where the previous one had not collected.
Participating in the second reading stage debate on the Inland Revenue Bill, MP Handunnetti said the bill had been drafted by the IMF for Ghana and subsequently translated into Sinhala. We agree that the government has made changes. But we have submitted our amendments too. The indirect tax is 82 percent.
The Premier said in his policy statement that the indirect tax should be reduced to 60 percent on November 05. “But it has proved a failure although you introduced super gain taxes through the budget proposals.”
“Although they were not collected, the indirect taxes were raked in. That affected only the ordinary masses.”
Handunetti also said that the more than 43 percent of the population does not earn more than Rs 320 a day. “This Bill has proposals to impose a tax on dowry, and transfer of assets from parents to children”
“If someone gets a donation or a gift from the President’s Fund, that money also would be taxed. The writers who publish a book are taxed. Artistes also would not be spared.”
Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera responding to Handunnetti said that a tax would not be imposed on the assets transferred to the children from deceased parents and transfers among blood relations.
MP Handunnetti said that remittances from expatriate Sri Lankans workers would be taxed. Minister Eran Wickramaratne said that the income of the employees in West Asia would not be taxed. He added that an income of USD 100,000 earned by Sri Lankans in other countries was exempt from taxes.
MP Handunnetti said that the TAX Bill had proposals to impose a tax on the donations made to the Buddhist Monks and the priests. Even a minister related to literature, art and sports would make a donation less than Rs 100,000 to someone, lest he or she should be taxed. “But earlier that money was not taxed,” “Even a small village association will have to pay taxes on their revenue,” he said