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Excise TUs to protest Special Goods and Services Tax

18 Jan 2022

  • Query accountability of proposed tax collection; claim would lead to Dept.’s ‘natural death’
  • Customs and IRD unions to join protest
    BY Pamodi Waravita The Excise Trade Union (TU) Collective will be holding a protest campaign in front of the Finance Ministry today (18), against the newly gazetted Special Goods and Services Tax (SGST), as they claim that this would lead to the “natural death of the Excise Department”. “The proposed Act combines eight different taxes of seven different institutions, which will be collected by one officer from the Finance Ministry. The proposed Act says that the taxes will be collected to an account under the name of the said officer. That is very unclear to us, as to how accountability would work in this context,” Excise Trade Union Collective Secretary Nirosha Jayakody told The Morning yesterday (17). Thus the Collective, alongside unions representing Sri Lanka Customs and the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), will be holding a large-scale protest against this move in front of the Finance Ministry today. The SGST will impose a single tax on telecommunication, cigarettes, liquor, betting and gaming, and motor vehicle assemblers, manufacturers, importers, and service providers in lieu of the various taxes and levies imposed under different Acts. The gazette regarding the SGST was issued on 7 January 2022. The Bill empowers the Finance Minister to determine the rate of the tax, the basis of computing the tax, and exceptions to the tax by an order published in the gazette. Furthermore, a unit established within the Treasury, under the leadership of a named Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, will be responsible for the collection and accounting of the SGST.


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