The Court of Appeal last Thursday (22) scheduled for Wednesday (28) further consideration of the petition filed requesting an order to nullify the decision taken by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) to impose Withholding Tax (WHT) on national cricketers.

The players have signed contracts with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), which allow them to be treated as employees of the institution.

The writ petition was filed by Charith Asalanka and Dhananjaya de Silva as the respective Captains of the One-Day International and Twenty20 cricket teams and the Test Cricket Team.

They challenged what they termed as an arbitrary and unreasonable classification of national cricketers as employees of SLC by the IRD.

The petition was taken up before a Court of Appeal bench comprising Appeals Court Acting President Justice Mohamed Thahir Laffar and Justice Priyantha Fernando.

During the hearing, Nishan Premathiratne, PC, appearing on behalf of the petitioners, submitted that the cricketers who filed the petition were not employees of SLC.

He further stated that under the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Act No.45 of 2022, the Commissioner General of Inland Revenue had interpreted national cricketers as employees of SLC, which he claimed was a flawed interpretation.

The counsel pointed out that his clients were not entitled to benefits such as Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and other allowances, adding that categorising them as employees of SLC without proper justification was legally unfounded.

Kuvera de Zoysa, PC, appearing for SLC, also informed the bench that the petitioners were not employees but independent service providers.

He explained that under the amended Inland Revenue Act of 2022, the Department of Inland Revenue had decided to treat national cricketers as SLC employees and impose WHT on them starting from 1 January 2023.

Due to this issue, SLC had reportedly found itself in a position where it would not be able to make payments to players starting from November 2024, he added. Accordingly, he expressed support for the relief sought by the petitioners.

Meanwhile, Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) Manohara de Silva, appearing on behalf of the respondents, stated that players who had entered into contracts with SLC were interpreted as employees under the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Act. Therefore, they were liable to pay taxes, he emphasised.

Following these submissions, the court deferred further consideration of the petition until Wednesday, on which day the DSG is expected to submit further arguments.

(JK)