26 March, 2023
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa told Parliament on Friday that the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that the tax on cigarettes should exceed the global inflation rate and that the tax on popular cigarette brands in Sri Lanka should be 75 percent.
Premadasa said that the Ceylon Tobacco Company can set prices at any time as it has the monopoly on the production and the sale of cigarettes in the country and added that Sri Lanka is losing Rs. 45 billion for not taxing cigarettes correctly and added that this should be rectified.