The Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, I present the Report of the Committee on Public Finance on the:

¶ 02 (1) Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill; and

¶ 03 (2) Aswesuma Welfare Benefit Payment Scheme under Section 9 of the Welfare Benefits Act, No. 24 of 2002,

¶ 04 which were referred to the said Committee.

¶ 05 Ordered to lie upon the Table.

¶ 06 Sir, I need two minutes to make a quick explanation.

¶ 07 Regarding Aswesuma, there is no issue with extending the duration of payments to beneficiaries. There is also no issue with increasing the number of beneficiaries. However, we discussed a small problem at the Committee, namely, the exclusion and inclusion errors. The Centre for Poverty Analysis, a think tank, made a presentation to MPs. Some Members attended, some did not. Their survey indicated that the exclusion error exceeds 50 per cent — meaning over half of those who should receive Aswesuma are not receiving it. The inclusion error — those who should not receive but do — is about 26 per cent. We discussed this with officials yesterday. They said the Household Income and Expenditure Survey is being conducted after six years, post-2019, and they would cross-reference with that. The selection of those who should be paid under Aswesuma has had continuing issues; this has now been evidenced. Therefore, I wish to remind the Government to pay attention to this.

¶ 08 Second, on the removal of SVAT. Many exporter associations wrote to me as Chair, seeking a hearing; we accommodated such requests. Yesterday, representatives from across the sector attended. Their request was to delay removing SVAT because of serious problems they face due to the tariff imposed by Donald Trump. We discussed this at length with the Hon. Deputy Minister of Finance as well. We considered whether the Bill could be deferred and brought a few months later. This is to take effect from 1st October. We proposed a delay due to multiple concerns. The Government did not accept this. Therefore, as Chair, I opposed it. Hon. Ravi Karunanayake also opposed. However, Government Members approved it. I usually do not oppose in such matters, but this is the first time I have had to note such a position in this House. I wanted to place this on record.

¶ 09 Thank you.