Cabinet approves concessionary taxes for commercial land

Jul 27, 2016 (LBO) - Sri Lanka’s cabinet has decided to approve concessionary taxes for commercial lands under the state lands ordinance. Under a directive by President Maithripala Sirisena, in his capacity as the Minister of Mahaweli Development and Environment, a concessionary taxation method for leasing state lands was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, Gayantha Karunathilake, cabinet spokesperson and mass media minister said. Presently according to the provisions of the State Lands Ordinance, for lands which are leased for thirty (30) years under the long-term lease scheme, the tax is calculated according to the market value calculated by the Chief Assessor and the tax rate is increased 50 percent every five years. In renting state lands for commercial enterprises the tax rate remains a high value causing many difficulties to small and medium scale entrepreneurs. "Considering above facts only 20 percent will be added to the existing lease amount at the time of revision once in every five years," the minister said. According to the new revisions there will be no three installments at the commencement of a long term lease. When renewing the period of the lease after the completion of the first 30 years, computation of the lease amount of the second period of lease to be done by adding only 20 percent to the amount charged in the last year of the first 30 years.