MP Bandula Gunawardene, a follower of Kurunegala district MP Mahinda Rajapaksa who conducts himself as a political opportunist conspiring to create dissension within the government, blindly makes distorted versions of the new Inland Revenue Act, Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera said. Minister Samaraweera said it is questionable as to why MP Gunawardena who charged that the new Inland Revenue Act satisfied the foreigners at the cost of native people, knows that he has forgotten as to how the previous regime through its Strategies Development Act had provided large-scale tax relief and tax holidays to the foreigners. The previous government stands accused of providing various long-term tax relief and tax holidays to its close buddies and a selected lot of foreigners to secure kickbacks by making use of Strategies Development Act.
The previous government’s policy of surreptitiously implementing the tax relief policy enabled 10 percent of the population to enjoy the 54 percent of the dividends out of the national economy.
The present government however, has introduced a clean and transparent system benefiting hitherto forgotten local entrepreneurs to match with their investments. By the new Act, this government has put an end to the era of greasing the palm of politicians and their minions to obtain tax benefits and tax holidays, the Minister said.
Since the new Act is precise about its tax relief measures any entrepreneur could ascertain in advance what his tax benefits will be.
With the passage of the new Inland Revenue Act, the discretionary power vested with ministers, departmental and institutional heads to give various tax concessions have come to an end. Mahinda Rajapaksa and his team are making every effort to deceive the public by fabricating lies. Even the prerogative vested with the Finance Minister to give tax relief has been done away with by the new Act.
The Minister categorically stated that there is hardly any truth in the disinformation campaign of the Opposition which reiterates that any member of a family in receipt of an yearly income of six lakhs of rupees, senior citizens and places of worship have been made taxable.