Agriculture, Fisheries and Poultry sectors will be exempted from income tax for the next five years, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said.

Addressing the event, the President said tax concessions will be granted for strategic investments larger than ten million US dollars in value for agricultural product processing, IT, dairy, fabric, tourism and export industries.

“Exports are being strongly encouraged through the removal of import taxes on required raw materials, machinery, and equipment used by direct and indirect exporters. The private sector must introduce new technologies that enable farmers to produce more, and to target lucrative new export markets,” he remarked.

Addressing the event, the President also said the Government was in the process of bringing in new laws to protect investments. He emphasised the need to attract more Foreign Direct Investment and encourage more local investment for economic growth.
“Our overreliance on loans must come to an end. That is why the focus of the Government is on fostering investments.

We are also committed to enhancing the ease of doing business in Sri Lanka so that returns on investment can be generated faster,” he added.

He noted that the Government was keen on addressing the problems which had delayed and stalled various projects including some funded by foreign Governments.
He also highlighted that the Government strongly encourages new investment into digital infrastructure.

“In some ways, the new normal conditions have forced the adoption of many new work practices. Working from home has been normalised for most knowledge workers. Offices where the physical presence of staff remains necessary are devising means to improve efficiency so that work can be carried out even by a skeletal staff. Innovative technology driven solutions have been adopted to solve logistical problems. Consumers have become more familiar with using online platforms for day-to-day activities, whether in accessing financial services or for shopping.

“Such changes can potentially transform how economies operate even after this pandemic is a thing of the past. If our institutions are agile and adapt quickly, we will see gains in productivity resulting from these changes,” he added.

“By converging four prominent technologies – social, mobile, analytics, and cloud-we have the potential to transform the way governance works. The recent introduction of the Staysafe.gov.lk website to ease COVID-19 contact tracing is a case in point.

Source: www.dailynews.lk