By Saman Indrajith

Minister of Labour Nimal Siripala de Silva told Parliament yesterday that the Ministry of Labour was opposed to taxing the Employees’ Provident Fund.

Responding to a question raised by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa on the proposed surcharge on superannuation funds, demanding that a gazette, announcing the Surcharge Tax Bill be withdrawn, Minister de Silva said: “My stance on this matter is clear and it has already been announced. The origin of this issue is not the gazette. The Inland Revenue Department has said the income earned by investing EPF and ETF money should be taxed. Yet, our ministry’s position is clear: the EPF and ETF should not be taxed and the position of the Inland Revenue Department is wrong. We have informed the Treasury that this definition should be amended. We have also informed the Commissioner of the Department of Inland Revenue. We informed them of our position months ago,” the minister said.

Opposition Leader Premadasa: I am thankful to the minister for his honesty. The minister has told this House that his ministry is opposed to this. Then, how could the Finance Ministry issue a gazette of this nature?

UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe: We must discuss this matter in the party leaders’ meeting and thereafter we can debate it here to prepare a draft to submit for the approval of Parliament to ensure that both EPF and ETF are exempted from the taxes.

Chief Opposition Whip Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella: We demand a debate on this matter. This is fundamentally wrong because this leads to double taxation. An EPF beneficiary would be taxed for the amount of his money. Those receiving EPF face double taxation as a tax is imposed when withdrawing the funds and the Fund will be taxed again on investments. Double taxation is against the law. Therefore, we demand a debate on this matter.

Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena: It is during the Yahapalana time this new income tax law was passed. It is according to that law these regulations are introduced. You passed the wrong law removing the tax exemptions given to these funds.

Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa: The new circular in question was issued as per the provisions of the Inland Revenue Act No 24 of 2017. It was your government that brought this Act. It is wrong for you to speak as if you do not know the matter. MP Kiriella demands a debate on the economy stating that he does not know of the prevailing economic situation. In the meantime, he tells in the meetings outside parliament that the economy is collapsing.

Chief Opposition Whip Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella: Minister Namal Rajapaksa said that it was as per the provisions of an Act passed during our time that the taxation was introduced. I ask him to read to this House the particular section from that Act enabling taxation. I challenge him to show us such a section. Can you do that?

Minister Namal Rajapaksa: Minister Bandula Gunawardena will read out the particular section to this House tomorrow.

The Chief Opposition Whip: He spoke of a section, but he does not know where it is. He does not know what he spoke of.

Earlier in the day, leader of the opposition Premadasa said the country’s current foreign reserves available for importing goods were only sufficient for three weeks. The government had failed to address the matter in the House. The government had imposed a 25 percent tax on Sri Lanka’s largest fund, the Employees’ Provident Fund, which is worth Rs.3 trillion, which generated a profit of around Rs. 250 billion. The Minister of Finance is attempting to misappropriate funds belonging to the public for implementing the ‘100,000 Projects’ through the Budget’s rural development programme.

He demanded to know whether the government was attempting to misappropriate funds amounting to Rs.65 billion from the EPF.