BIZ

FTZ Union requests Govt. to collar bigtime tax evaders

Published

11 months ago

November 11, 2022

editor

The Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees’ Union (FTZ&GSEU) has made a call to take immediate action on companies that have become VAT and income tax defaulters, rather than increasing the indirect tax burden on the public.

In a letter to all MPs, the FTZ&GSEU says the following factors were revealed in a Parliament speech by MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage on Sep. 20.

Only 25,692 companies have paid taxes out of 100,005 business companies that have income tax files opened. Accordingly, 74,313 companies have defrauded in paying due taxes.
Out of the 60,721 enterprises registered for VAT only 185 have paid VAT charged from customers by September to the government. This means the remaining 60,536 enterprises have kept for themselves the VAT charged from customers.
Income tax has not been paid by a leading businessman who owns a popular chain of garment outlets and also by a businessman owning a popular supermarket chain.
Income tax is not paid by 75 MPs.

“Whatever the motive was for MP Aluthgamage to expose these defrauds, in a country where indirect tax total 83 percent, it is the general public who end up carrying this huge burden of tax defaults in billions of rupees by corrupt businessmen. People have been made to undergo all hardships due to these defaults with no government taking effective measures to recover defaulted tax money with surcharges from those who defraud. Instead of recovering defaulted tax money with penalties from corrupt defrauding businessmen, governments impose and increase indirect taxes on people who thus become unnecessarily punished,” the letter adds.

The FTZ&GSEU further urges the MPs to take the following measures in this regard :

Request the Minister of Finance to present a detailed report to Parliament including the names of businessmen who are related to tax frauds mentioned above, before the next budget is presented in parliament and also adopt resolutions in parliament to,
Immediately suspend the income tax imposed on personal incomes of one hundred thousand rupees (100,000) and above, until a final decision is taken by the NLAC on information provided by the ministry of finance on tax defrauds and
Remove the total VAT imposed on essential consumer goods and suspend the social security contribution levy of 2.5 percent in force with effect from the 01 st October 2022.

The complete letter of the FTZ&GSEU is as follows :

To-all-the-Hon.-Members-of-Parliament-08.11.2022 Download

BIZ

SriLankan enters into partnership with Virgin Australia

Published

9 hours ago

September 28, 2023

editor

SriLankan Airlines has entered into a first-ever interline partnership with Virgin Australia that will strengthen the airline’s network in Australia and offer customers extensive connections across the land down under and beyond.

The new partnership reaffirms SriLankan’s commitment to Australia and will present customers the convenience of adding select Virgin Australia domestic or international connections to their SriLankan Airlines booking and managing a multi-airline itinerary under a single ticket.

Dimuthu Tennakoon, Head of Worldwide Sales & Distribution of SriLankan Airlines commented on the partnership by stating, “Australia has one of the largest Sri Lankan diasporic communities, which makes our Australian routes incredibly popular all year around and particularly with people travelling to visit friends and relatives or in pursuit of higher education. This partnership will help us make further inroads in the Australian market through improved connectivity and a range of other benefits for our valued customers.”

SriLankan Airlines currently operates daily from Colombo to Melbourne and from Colombo to Sydney on a thrice-weekly basis. The partnership will enable passengers flying SriLankan to Melbourne or Sydney to connect to the Australian cities of Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Cairns, Darwin, Hobart, Hamilton Island, Launceston, Gold Coast and Perth with Virgin Australia. Passengers will also have the option of flying beyond Australia to New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji. It is a win for Sri Lankan and Indian Australians living in these cities too as they can now fly out from their local city to Sri Lanka or India with a single SriLankan Airlines’ booking. What’s more, passengers can enjoy a seamless journey with a single check-in, including for baggage, at the departure airport and beat transit check-in queues.

The introduction of domestic and international interline flights options with Virgin Australia would improve the accessibility to Sri Lanka for Australian outbound tourists as well. An important customer group for SriLankan, the partnership will unquestionably help develop Australian leisure travel to Sri Lanka. It will also provide easy connections for SriLankan Airlines’ passengers flying to Australia via Colombo from the Maldives, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Since relaunching flights to Melbourne in October 2017 and Sydney in June 2020, close to a million passengers have travelled with SriLankan Airlines to Australia. The new partnership will enhance SriLankan Airlines’ service to Australia as the airline prepares to cruise to new altitudes above the land down under. For more information on SriLankan’s Australian operations visit www.srilankan.com

BIZ

Colombo International Book Fair 2023 kicks off

Published

6 days ago

September 22, 2023

editor

Sri Lanka’s largest book exhibition, ‘Colombo International Book Fair’, commenced today (22) at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH).

The book fair organised by the Sri Lanka Book Publishers’ Association will be held until October 1 from 9.00 am – 9.00 pm.