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VAT on school material, essential goods, medicine to be reduced

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Senior Advisor to the President on Economic and Financial Affairs Prof. Anil Jayantha stated that the government will focus on reducing the VAT levied on school material including textbooks and essential foods and medicine.

The professor said this while participating in the meeting of Gampaha district farmers organised by Sri Lanka Agricultural Development Council, chairman Sashika De Silva, at Miriswatta yesterday (7).

The Gampaha Minsara organisation President who attended the event said that Sri Lanka is known as the only country in the world that levies VAT on textbooks. Accordingly, he requested to remove VAT from school material.

Prof.Anil Jayantha in response said Sri Lanka has obtained an extended credit facility from the International Monetary Fund and have reached a series of agreements. Accordingly, it has been agreed to meet certain benchmarks. By 2025, the government’s income as a percentage of the gross domestic product has been targeted to increase to 15 percent.

“In order to achieve this goal, indirect taxes such as VAT should be collected. Exemption of school equipment from this tax should be studied very carefully. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake spoke about this during our discussion with the IMF. One suggestion was to reduce the percentage of VAT charged in this sector, which is currently 18%, to seven or five percent instead of 0%. Another suggestion was to give a financial grant to schoolchildren to buy equipment. But no final decision has been taken in that regard. It should be noted that as a policy, the government will take steps to reduce the VAT levied on essential food, medicine and school equipment to zero percent at the first possible opportunity,” he said.

(dailynews.lk)

(Except for the headline, this story, originally published by dailynews.lk has not been edited by SLM staff)

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Assets of 02 police officers to be probed

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Assets of two prominent police officers are to be probed after authorities received a number of complaints, highly placed sources in the government say.

One officer in question is a DIG while the other is a SSP, reports add.

The Police Illegal Assets And Property Investigation Division are conducting further investigations.

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AG seeks CID probe into social media smear campaign against his staff

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The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has opened a probe following a complaint by Attorney General Parinda Ranasinghe that his staff have been unduly targeted by false allegations on social media.

The AG’s instruction to the CID came after several of his staff complained to him over the allegation on social media.

Particularly targeted are senior AG’s Department officials awaiting promotions, sources said.

In one of the posts, a senior officer was accused of being supportive of granting bail to Thamil Makkal Viduthal Puligal (TMVP) leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillaiyan, when his fundamental rights application over his arrest was taken up. During the hearing of the FR case, the matter of bail was not even considered, the sources said.

Another allegation was that in a case related to the suspended Police Chief Deshabandu Tennakoon, the AG prevented a senior officer from representing the department and instead sent a junior officer. However, on the particular day, the senior officer was indisposed, the sources said.

These allegations surface as the AG’s Department has filed more than 600 new indictments in High Courts so far this year, while the Bribery Commission has also referred several bribery and corruption cases to the AG for prosecution.

(sundaytimes.lk)
(This story, originally published by sundaytimes.lk has not been edited by SLM staff)

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19-yr. old dies after falling from elevator

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A 19-year-old youth has died after falling from a service elevator at a hotel in the Pannai area, in the Jaffna Police Division.

According to the police, the incident had occurred last night (June 21) and the deceased has been identified as a resident of Nirveli, Jaffna.

According to investigations, the youth was employed at the hotel and had been using the service elevator -intended for transporting goods.

Further investigations are underway.

This incident follows a similar case recently reported from a hotel in Moratuwa last week.

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19-yr.-old dies after hotel elevator collapses

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