Inland Revenue Department (IRD) Deputy Commissioner General – Tax Administration Manjula Gunatunga stated that when the IRD appeared before the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA), he did not mention the names of any individuals linked to the casino businesses that had not settled their overdue taxes to the IRD in full.
Speaking to The Morning Business in response to the article published on 21 June titled “Dhammika settled casino taxes 10 days before National List nomination”, Gunatunga noted that he had not mentioned the names of the individuals who owned the casinos that had paid the taxes.
However, Gunatunga noted that two of the casinos owned by one individual had paid two instalments of Rs. 240 million, while the other two casinos owned by another individual had paid two instalments of Rs. 425 million.
Gunatunga stated that when the media reported that a certain individual who owned two of the casinos was going to take up a position in the Government, the two casinos paid the remaining instalments of Rs. 575 million each (a total of Rs. 1,150 million) on 30 May.
It was thus clear to The Morning Business that this individual was Dhammika Perera, who was sworn in as an MP on Wednesday (22), as the casinos in question are owned by Ravi Wijeratne and Dhammika Perera, while Bally’s Casino is registered under Dhammika Perera’s brother Anuradha Perera. However, this inference was not made by Gunatunga in his statement before COPA.
IRD states that no names of casino owners were mentioned at COPA
24 Jun 2022
IRD states that no names of casino owners were mentioned at COPA
24 Jun 2022