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JVP to challenge Basil’s brainchild

21 Jul 2021

  • Promises legal action against ‘Finance Bill’
  • Claims Bill to launder black money, cites tax evasion
BY Buddhika Samaraweera  The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is preparing to initiate legal action against the ‘Finance Bill’ presented to the Parliament by the Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa. At a media briefing in Colombo yesterday (21), the JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva alleged that the said Bill has not been introduced for ordinary entrepreneurs who are helpless in the face of the collapsed economy due to the Covid-19 pandemic but for tax evaders.  "The businesses of those who have been unable to repay bank loans, leases and are facing a major crisis as a result, are closing down. The Government should provide some relief to such small and medium scale entrepreneurs. However, the Government has not brought this Bill for that. This is to facilitate tax evaders who have not been exposed and have defrauded the people of their tax money. This is simply a Bill to launder black money," he claimed. This Bill, if it is passed as an Act of Parliament, will enable persons to voluntarily disclose undisclosed taxable supplies, income and assets required to be disclosed under certain laws; will provide for the imposition of a tax on the taxable supplies, income and assets so disclosed; will allow to indemnify the persons who voluntarily disclose any such taxable supply, income or asset against liability from investigation, prosecution and penalties under specified laws; and will grant certain concessions to persons who had already disclosed taxable supplies, income and assets under specified laws. Alleging that the ruling Rajapaksas' economic strategy was to encourage illegal gains, Silva said that the Bill presented to Parliament was "very serious". “We do not think that it will be used in any way to strengthen the national economy. The Government does not talk about businessmen who are unable to repay bank loans. In such a backdrop, those who are to be punished before the law are to be protected by this Bill,” he added. Speaking further, he also claimed that the first Bill brought to the Parliament by the newly appointed Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa is to launder black money and that if the Bill is passed, such unexposed money could be used for investment in the stock market before 31 December 2021, and also to buy Treasury bills and bonds issued by the Central Bank on behalf of the Government. "Properties in Sri Lanka can also be bought with this fraudulent money. Or they can deposit it in bank accounts. It is true that the Treasury is empty. Under the guise of that, what they are going to do today is to give legitimacy to the money earned by their cronies through illicit means.  Such a serious Bill is going to be presented to the Parliament now and be passed in the future," he further added.  

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