A Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Government would increase the maximum tax rate under Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) tax to over 40% for high-income earners while maintaining a 25% tax rate for those with a monthly income of Rs. 500,000, SJB MP Dr. Harsha de Silva said.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday (14), he said that the SJB was not objecting to the amount of taxes imposed as per the direction of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but to the inhumanity of charging those taxes from the public.

“We believe we should be able to maintain a PAYE tax rate of around 24-25% for those who earn at least Rs. 450,000-500,000,” he said.

He noted that a graduated software engineer would start at a job earning around $ 1,000 monthly (or approximately Rs. 400,000) in Sri Lanka, which would gradually increase with the employment period and could end up at about $ 6,000.

“They can go to any country in the world and do that job; they don’t have to stay in Sri Lanka. We should look at how to keep them in Sri Lanka,” Dr. de Silva said.