ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka has negotiated with the International Monetary Fund to raise the income tax threshold to 150,000 rupees a month from the current 100,000 rupees, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said.
“The wages of a person earning 150,000 rupees will be 100 percent free from tax,” President Dissanayake told parliament.
“The 6 percent tax on the first slab of 500,000 rupees will be raised to one million rupees.”
“The tax on someone earning 200,000 rupees will be 71 percent free of tax. The salary of a person earning 250,000 will be 61 percent free. The salary of a person earning 300,000 rupees will be 47 percent freed.
“The salary of a person who gets 350,000 a month will be 25 percent freed.
“We have been able to revise PAYE tax to give bigger benefits to lower income earnings and lower benefits to higher income earners.”
A witholding tax on bank deposits to be raised from 5 to 10 percent. However there will be process where exemptions can be claimed by lower income earners, he said.
Value added tax on milk and yoghurt will also be removed, he said.
Corporate tax on services export which was to be raised to 30 percent will be 15 percent, he said. (Colombo/Dec18/2024 – Update II)