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

The Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara, Attorney-at-Law

Samagi Jana Balawegaya· Kurunegala· 21 March 2025 ·Oral question: Oral Question No. 127/2024: Currency Notes and Coins

Public FinanceForeign Affairs
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Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara questioned a statement by Hon. Wijitha Herath that Booking.com should leave Sri Lanka if it does not pay taxes, noting that about 40 per cent of tourists use the platform. He asked whether the matter had been discussed with the Ministry of Finance, given the absence of a legal framework to tax such platforms, and sought clarification on what was meant by “removing” Booking.com.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 My second supplementary, Hon. Deputy Minister: I refer to a statement by Hon. Wijitha Herath regarding Booking.com, suggesting they should leave Sri Lanka if they do not pay taxes. About 40% of tourists come via Booking.com. There is no existing mechanism to tax such platforms; there is no legal framework. Such statements can cause many problems, even internationally. Have you discussed this with the Ministry of Finance? What exactly is meant by “removing” Booking.com?

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Friday, 21 March 2025 ·No. 1747297753031842 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara, Attorney-at-Law. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 21 March 2025. No. 1747297753031842. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/15657