Government’s tax reliefs aggravated economic crisis – Anura Kumara

Certain tax reliefs given by the current Government has aggravated the economic crisis in the country, Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB) Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said in Parliament yesterday (3).

Moving the Adjournment Motion on the Central Bank Annual Report 2020, Dissanayake claimed that the country is in a grave economic crisis situation, yet some important facts about the economy are distorted in the CBSL Annual Report. Not only that the Government, at the same time, conceals some  crucial economy-related facts from the people.

A Government hiding information from the people cannot be accepted, Dissanayake stressed. “Annual Report of the CBSL reflects the country’s economy. When we go through this report for 2020, it can be seen that the economy is dropping at an alarming rate and the future of this remains unclear.

Yet, the Government continuously says that they have enough money to run the economy. This report clearly shows that such claims of the Government are not accurate.” Dissanayake noted that according to the report, the economy is worsening in four aspects.

“We can see that Inland Revenue has dropped drastically while the production of the country has dropped in a similar manner. The trade deficit is rising alarmingly while the debt rate is increasing in a similar manner. All these four aspects are worsening individually yet they are interconnected.” Speaking further, Dissanayake said that although the Government expected an inland revenue of Rs 1,961 billion for 2021, it had been able to collect an income of Rs 482 billion during the first four months of 2021.

“However, the Government had had to pay Rs 676 billion for debts. In such a situation, the Government had to take more loans to settle the existing loans. The Government’s expenditure for the first four months of this year is recorded as Rs1,678 billion. However, the Government could get only an income of around Rs 1,500 billion for 2021,” he pointed out.

(Source: Ceylon Today – By Gagani Weerakoon and Methmalie Dissanayake)