सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Kathmandu. Sri Lanka is relying on a vehicle import tax to boost revenue and revive the island nation’s battered economy, leftist President Anuradha Kumar Dissanayake’s first budget showed on Monday. Vehicle imports were banned in 2020 to save foreign exchange, but the move deprived authorities of a lucrative revenue stream, with cars taxed at around 300 percent.
President Dissanayake said the end of the ban would boost state revenue to meet the 15 percent tax target of gross domestic product (GDP) the country had to achieve under the terms of the International Monetary Fund bailout deal. “A large portion of the revenue gains for 2025 are expected to come from the liberalization of motor vehicle imports,” the President told Parliament, “and this process is being carefully monitored to ensure that vehicle imports do not have an undue negative impact on external stability.”
The budget also doubled the entry fee for the country’s two casinos to $100 and increased the turnover tax on gambling establishments from 15 percent to 18 percent. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) wants Sri Lanka to double tax revenue from 7.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2022. The country defaulted on its $46 billion foreign debt in 2022.
That year, the island ran out of foreign currency to import food, fuel and other essentials. This led to months of street protests and the fall of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Sri Lanka last year took out a $2.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Dissanayake, who was elected last year on a promise to end corruption and bring back stolen assets stashed abroad, said the economy was improving.
“We should be in a position to comfortably repay our foreign debt by 2028,” he said. He announced a 65 percent increase in the minimum wage to 40,000 rupees ($133) and increased subsidies for low-income earners.
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्