Amongst the changes to atttract foreign investment, Sri Lanka is to abolish its standard tool for this – long tax holidays for those prepared to invest.
Sarath Amunugama, senior minister for international monetary co-operation, says it’s his idea:
“I was the chairman of a committee to look into this and we have suggested drastic changes and one is to abolish tax concessions given under the Board of Investments (BOI).”
See LBO's report here.
But three weeks ago, it was the IMF that was arguing for this. As the IMF’s resident representative in Colombo Koshy Mathai put it,
"Rather than having the BOI operate as a tax concession generating machine, the idea is now for the BOI to be re-purposed to be an investment facilitating agency."
See LBO’s report here.
See also our earlier posts:
IMF says Sri Lanka following instructions (19 Feb)
The limits of possibility (Jan 2011)
Sri Lanka taking its medicine – IMF (Dec 2010)
Fears for the economy – and of the state (Nov 2010)
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