10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. Sajith Premadasa

Samagi Jana Balawegaya· Colombo· 4 March 2025 ·Procedural: Ministerial Statement: Online Safety Act and tax on export services

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Sajith Premadasa questioned why the tax on services exports was only reduced from 30% to 15% after IMF discussions rather than being removed entirely, citing the need to increase dollar inflows from SMEs in IT and digital services. He urged the Government to reconsider and fully withdraw the remaining 15% tax in line with its digital export promotion policy, and also called for the suspension of the OSA pending new legislation.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, a clarification: If the rate was reduced from 30% to 15% after IMF discussions, why not remove it entirely, given the need to boost dollar inflows from SMEs in IT/digital services? I urge the Government to reconsider and fully withdraw the 15% on services exports, aligning with your policy to promote digital exports, and to suspend the OSA pending new legislation.

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Tuesday, 4 March 2025 ·No. 1742359468086980 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Sajith Premadasa. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 4 March 2025. No. 1742359468086980. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/10236