The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake
Hon. Ravi Karunanayake questioned why mechanisms are not in place to capture tax and foreign exchange revenue from tourism transactions, including off-book earnings and credit card payments processed through foreign gateways. He argued that foreign visitors should contribute through appropriate systems, as Sri Lankans are taxed extensively, and asked whether the Government would apply similar rigor to ensure these revenues enter official channels.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Minister, you have not answered the question. Sri Lankans pay taxes every step of the day; foreign visitors should also contribute. Based on your data, if tourism earns about USD 3.5 billion and even 2.5 percent remains off the books, USD 70–100 million is lost annually. Also, when credit cards are swiped via foreign gateways, funds bypass the Central Bank’s systems. Why aren’t mechanisms in place to ensure proper capture? Will you apply similar rigor as with locals and collect from foreign visitors through appropriate systems?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 9 June 2026 ·No. 23706 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
- Permalink
/lk/speeches/2818
Cite as: The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 9 June 2026. No. 23706. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/2818