Five gazettes to be submitted to the Parliament for approval were considered in the Government Finance Committee recently and approval was obtained for four gazettes.
This approval was given after an analysis of the relevant gazettes in the Government Finance Committee which met recently (20) under the chairmanship of Member of Parliament Dr. Harshada Silva.
Thus, the approval of the Committee was obtained for Gazette No. 2282/26, which is stipulated under Value Added Tax Act No. 14 of 2002 as amended by Act No. 6 of 2005. This gazette was published in relation to increasing the value added tax (VAT) to 12%.
The rule under the Excise Ordinance mentioned in the Special Gazette No. 2277/62 was also considered here. This gazette had been imposed in relation to charging a tax of Rs 50 for a liter of rice and the relevant gazette had to be approved.
Under the Finance Act No. 25 of 2003 mentioned in the Extraordinary Gazette No. 2272/53, approval was also given by the Committee of the Rules Committee. This gazette was published to reduce the fee charged to each person departing from Ratmalana Airport to USD 30.
Meanwhile, under the Foreign Exchange Act No. 12 of 2017, the order mentioned in the Special Gazette No. 2296/12 was considered here and its purpose is to increase the period of 24 months to 36 months mentioned in the orders of the Gazette No. 2234/19 published on June 30, 2021.
There was a special discussion of the committee was regarding the imposition of a temporary ban on the import of commodes which was mentioned in the special order No. 2296/30 published under the import and export control No. 1 of 1969. The officials also pointed out that this decision was taken with the aim of expanding the market for local products as recommended by the Ministry of Industry. But since the foreign exchange spent for the import of these goods is relatively low and the market lack of these goods as well as the increase in price cannot be borne by the common people, it was discussed in the committee that it is not appropriate to control the imports. Accordingly, it was decided to discuss this further in a future meeting.
The committee pointed out to the relevant officials the need to quickly refer these gazettes for approval.
Minister Nalin Fernando, State Minister Dr. Suren Raghavan, Members of Parliament Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Mayantha Dissanayake, Harshana Rajakaruna and Professor Ranjith Bandara were also present on this occasion.
