Tax Woes

February 27 (LBO) – Seylan Bank's group net profits rose 9.25 percent to 849.2 million rupees in 2006, as revenues climbed by 32.3 percent, its annual accounts released Tuesday showed. Group revenue climbed to 15.39 billion rupees while the bank on its own earned revenues of 14.1 billion rupees.

High income tax payments and flat fee income had undermined net profits, analysts said.

The group’s income tax for the year 2006 had doubled to 756.7 million rupees.

Meanwhile, the bank's gross assets climbed 12.3 percent to 141 billion rupees.

Its deposits rose 16.5 percent to 101.1 billion rupees while advances grew 15.4 percent to 89.6 billion.

The bank has net assets of 6.3 billion rupees (group 9 billion) and its earnings per share for 2006 was 6.4 rupees. The share closed flat at 38 rupees on Tuesday.