State Minister of Finance Dr.Ranjith Siyambalapitiya told Parliament yesterday the CESS tax proposed in the 2023 Budget is not applicable to stationery items and equipment used by schoolchildren.
He said this while delivering a special statement in Parliament. He addressed the concerns raised about the increase in the prices of stationery items following the CESS tax revision.
The State Minister stressed that the prices of imported textbooks, notebooks, pencils, erasers and paper materials used to produce notebooks have not been revised due to the CESS tax revision which was effective from November 15, 2022.
Accordingly, the prices of these items – locally-produced or imported have not been subjected to any changes due to the amendments made to the CESS tax, he said.
He said that the CESS tax is imposed based on the import value, when substitutes for the imported items are produced locally.
Thereby, the CESS tax on imported ballpoint pens, shoes and bags was amended to reflect the US$ exchange rate. As a result, the prices of these imported items are likely to see an increase, however, the prices of locally-produced stationery items have not been raised, Siyambalapitiya said.