News
Arjun Aloysius, two others sentenced to six months in jail
By AJA Abeynayake
Three Directors of W.M. Mendis and Company Ltd., Arjun Aloysius and two others, were sentenced yesterday to a six-month jail term by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court for defaulting a payment of Value Added Tax (VAT) amounting to Rs. 3.5 billion.
Colombo Additional Magistrate Bandara Ilangasinghe yesterday rejected an appeal submitted by three Directors of W.M. Mendis Distilleries, Arjun Aloysius, A.R. Dinendra John, and Prasanna Kumarasiri, to be forwarded to the Colombo High Court, seeking to invalidate the prison sentence imposed on them by the court earlier yesterday morning (14) over VAT evasion.
Through this appeal, the defendants also requested permission for paying the due taxes in instalments.
Additional Magistrate IIlangasinghe sentenced the Director of W.M. Mendis Distilleries, Arjun Aloysius and two others, to six months in prison for defaulting the payment of Rs. 3.5 billion in VAT by the company, when the case was taken up.
The relevant case was filed against the company by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) for defaulting the payment of Rs. 3.5 billion in taxes due to the government during the period from 2016 to 2019.
On November 14, 2023, the court ordered the accused to make the due payments. The imprisonment was imposed over failure to complete the relevant payments as per the court order.
The Paddy Marketing Board has approximately 115,000 metric tonnes of paddy stocks purchased from farmers, which are currently stored in the Board’s warehouses, and it has been planned to retain a sufficient buffer stock from these reserves and sell the remaining quantity in order to provide the necessary storage space and financial resources for the purchase of paddy from farmers during the upcoming Yala season.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to sell the aforementioned paddy stocks
following a formal tender procedure.
The Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 provides the legal provisions for regulating and promoting the export agriculture sector in this country.
Taking into consideration administrative changes and sectoral developments that have taken place over time, approval was granted at the Cabinet Meetings held on 2023-09-04 and 2025-08-11 to amend the said Act, which has not been updated for over 30 years.
The proposed amendments are intended to amend the designations of the Head of the Department of Export Agriculture and other officials, and to provide a clearer definition of the term “the export agricultural crop.”
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to publish in the Government Gazette the Draft Export Agriculture Promotion (Amendment) Bill, prepared in all three languages by the Legal Draftsman to amend the Export Agriculture Promotion Act, No. 46 of 1992, and thereafter submit the same to Parliament for its concurrence
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