Hon. Chithral Fernando, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, on behalf of the Chairman of the Committee on Public Finance, I present the Report of the Committee on Public Finance on the -

¶ 02 (i) Regulation under Section 4F read with Section 3 of the Strategic Development Projects Act, No. 14 of 2008 (Published in Gazette Extraordinary No. 2474/66 of 08 February 2026); (ii) Rules under Section 105 read with Section 7(1)(c) and Part VI of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act, No. 16 of 2023 (Published in Gazette Extraordinary No. 2473/30 of 30 January 2026); and (iii) Social Security Contribution Levy (Amendment) Bill,

¶ 03 which were referred to the said Committee.

¶ 04 Ordered to lie upon the Table.

¶ 05 May I be given 30 seconds for a small explanation, Hon. Speaker.

¶ 06 The Committee initially did not approve the Regulation under the Strategic Development Projects Act. The Committee questioned why Category A, which includes infrastructure and tourism, received six years’ corporate income tax holidays. Regarding Category B also, which includes manufacturing — as a country moving towards a production-based economy, Hon. Speaker — the Committee questioned. Since neither the Act nor the Regulation carried proper definitions of “strategic” and “Strategic Development Plan”, the Committee raised questions on those issues as well, for which a sufficient explanation was not given. Because of that, the Committee did not initially approve the first Amendment. Later, however, the Ministry of Finance — the Hon. Chathuranga Abeysinghe was also present — gave explanations on some issues, but they did not address all the concerns we raised. However, subject to addressing those issues at further reviews, the Committee approved the first Amendment, Sir. Thank you.