The Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva

¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, I lay on the Table the Report of the Committee on Public Finance relating to the following Regulations and Scheme referred to the Committee: (i) Regulation under the Sri Lanka Export Development Act, No. 40 of 1979; (ii) Regulations under the Special Commodity Levy Act, No. 48 of 2007; (iii) Scheme for the payment of Aswesuma Welfare Benefits under the Welfare Benefits Act, No. 24 of 2002; and (iv) Regulations under the Strategic Development Projects Act, No. 14 of 2008.

¶ 02 Ordered to lie upon the Table.

¶ 03 Mr. Speaker, the Committee approved the above Regulations and Scheme and today we present the Report to Parliament. Briefly: - Under the Sri Lanka Export Development Act regulation, action was taken to reduce the cess on certain items. A key point discussed was that the cess is a levy meant to support export development (e.g., for marketing and promotions). We instructed the Ministry of Finance and the EDB to properly manage and ensure these funds are channelled to export promotion.

¶ 04 - On the Aswesuma Welfare Benefits payment scheme, the Committee approved increases: those who received Rs. 5,000 this year to receive Rs. 5,000; those who received Rs. 8,500 to receive up to Rs. 10,000; and those who received Rs. 15,000 to receive up to Rs. 17,500 until the end of this year.

¶ 05 - Under the SDP Act, two projects were taken up: the West Container Terminal and a factory project in the Batticaloa area. We granted approval for the West Container Terminal. For Jay Jay Textiles Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, we requested further analysis and deferred it.

¶ 06 - Regarding the Special Commodity Levy on imported food items—such as red onions, garlic, peas, sprats, dried fish, imported mackerel and Maldives fish—some items have levies like Rs. 5, Rs. 300, Rs. 600 per kg. Although there was an agreement with the IMF to replace the SCL at import with VAT, and while no final VAT rate has been fixed, the Government has decided, for now, to continue with the existing SCL structure. The Committee granted approval for that decision.

¶ 07 Oral Answers to Questions