Customs reveals million rupee textile scam

 Monday, 02 February 2015

In a shocking revelation, Sri Lanka Customs said it had unearthed a massive scam of evading millions of rupees as taxes by two BOI Approved companies in the textile industry that had imported over 300 containers during the last few years without paying duty.

A senior Customs official said that the investigation had been conducted for the past few weeks where the detectives have found that the perpetrators had imported various types of fabrics and garments as raw material to manufacture their end product.

The two BOI approved companies are based in Kurunegala and the Customs had learnt that they have never exported the manufactured goods back to the respective destinations but had sold within the country.

The estimated amount of taxes and the loss of revenue to the government because of this violation of BOI regulations, was yet to be ascertained, officials said.

The case, which had been investigated for sometime in discreet, was ordered to be exposed to the media on a directive made by the Customs Director General Jagath P Wijeweera due to the magnitude of the scam.(Kevin Kariyawasam)

Ranil’s Budget Takes General Election Battle To SLFP Bastion

By Rasika Jayakody –February 1, 2015

Rasika Jayakody

The interim budget statement, presented to Parliament by Finance MinisterRavi Karunanayake on Thursday, was election, oriented in more ways than one. At the same time, it is different from the election, oriented budget presented by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in October, last year, just days before he announced the presidential election.

Finance Minister Karunanayake’s budget strongly challenges the neo-liberal outlook of the United National Party, making it look like a “populist” and “people-friendly” party rather than a “business-friendly” party. All in all, a noticeable cut-down is visible on overall state expenditure, but recurrent expenditure has increased significantly due to salary hikes and other benefits that have been given to strengthen the ‘poor’ and the ‘vulnerable’. The budget, a brainchild of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, has focused a lot on bringing in more revenue through innovative measures on the tax front while curtailing expenses.Read More