The Hon. Ajith P. Perera

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, many shortcomings of the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill’s policy have already been discussed. This Government came to power promising to strengthen the IT sector, remove taxes, encourage investment, and empower local entrepreneurs. Instead, the Government is now imposing unprecedented taxes that demotivate local entrepreneurs. Therefore, we cannot support this Bill.

¶ 02 A very large number of Sri Lankans are engaged in this sector. While there is no official survey, there is a highly credible private Facebook group, “Online Entrepreneurs’ Club,” with about 199,000 Sri Lankans. Membership is selective. Even if many are not full-time, it is clear that a significant number of young and middle-aged Sri Lankans bring money into the country through the IT sector, directly or indirectly. Taxing and discouraging them will ultimately drive talent away. Rather than making Sri Lanka a place people want to stay, you make it a place they want to leave. Policies should encourage investment through a friendly tax regime and other facilitation.

¶ 03 To the Ministry of Finance, let me raise another matter. I could not join the morning debate due to election nomination duties. A key 2024 Budget measure to attract investors was to establish a private-sector-participatory Investment Promotion Zone. In recent times, many prospective investors referred to the BOI were turned away for lack of land and facilities in the Western Province. That is not true. In the Milleniya Investment Promotion Zone we initiated, 244 acres have already been acquired by the BOI under Section 38(2), and surveying is completed for a further 166 acres with steps underway for vesting. Horana Plantations PLC has filed a case only regarding compensation for rubber, not against acquisition. Rubber productive life is typically 20 years; 15 years have passed. If the remaining five years’ yield were properly valued, the matter could be settled. About a billion rupees has already been spent on this project. I question whether the Ministry of Finance fully understands this.

¶ 04 A BOI letter dated 2025.03.04 to the Ministry of Highways notes that significant funds have been allocated to the National Water Supply and Drainage Board, the Ceylon Electricity Board, and the Road Development Authority to provide infrastructure. Large sums have been allocated for road widening and for a new access at Pelpola to the Southern Expressway. Over Rs. 1 billion by the public has been spent; lands vested; usage commenced; and construction initiated in part. With 244 acres already vested and 166 acres surveyed near the Southern Expressway, with water pipelines laid and part payment made for grid substations, the BOI and Finance Ministry are still turning investors away claiming no suitable land, no workforce, and no plots with access to Colombo and Hambantota via the expressway.

¶ 05 There is a reason. A former BOI Chairman owns a substantial stake in Horana Plantations PLC. They do not like their land being used via BOI or any Government project. Because of that influence, BOI officials are instructed to stall this project. As a result, on 2024.04.02, they wrote to the Lands Ministry seeking to cancel the acquisition due to current economic conditions. It has not been implemented because the Lands Ministry understands that around a billion rupees has already been spent and people in the area are expecting jobs from foreign investors. Milleniya must become a strategic hub for development, but when foreign investors come asking for large tracts—not 2, 3 or 4 acres—the BOI has not even visited this site for years. This land, acquired under Section 38(2), remains Government-owned, yet attempts are underway to hand it back to Horana Plantations PLC and halt the Pelpola expressway entrance.

¶ 06 I appeal especially to senior Ministers of this Government and to our party’s General Secretary, Hon. Nihal Abeysinghe, a strong MP from Kalutara District, who knows this area well. People in Milleniya and surrounding areas are very poor; there is an educated youth population and a large labour pool; the expressway runs nearby but without an entrance for a 23-kilometre stretch from Galenigama through Matugama to Dodangoda; there is no proper access to Kalutara city. A comprehensive plan exists. Instead of building industry to broaden the tax base, we are taxing what already exists and pushing people to leave the country.

¶ 07 I represent this area; I was born and live there. With about a billion rupees spent in Milleniya—water pipelines laid, funds given for CEB substations, an expressway entrance partially built—who is turning away investors coming to the BOI? Those people are not patriots nor do they love your Government; nor do they understand these projects. Hon. Minister Anura Karunathilaka, will you answer this?