Mangala scraps plan to take over tourism levy
The Treasury has assured the tourism industry that the cess fund comprising of 1 per cent remitted by the sector would not be taken over by Consolidated Fund, as earlier planned.
This assurance was given by Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera to the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President Sanath Ukwatte at a meeting on Monday.
The Minister gave this assurance when the THASL met with him requesting for a clarification on the TDL issue being taken into the Consolidated Fund. Mr. Ukwatte told the Business Times that the minister had given them a “positive hearing.”
During the meeting THASL had also requested the Minister to take necessary steps to counter the issues faced by the informal sector that were engaged in tourism but were not subject to the taxes since they were not registered establishments approved by the Tourism Authority.
Mr. Ukwatte explained that this was pointed out to the Minister with a view to creating an even playing field.
In addition, he noted that they had also requested the Minister to reconsider some of the ad hoc taxes imposed on the tourism sector and to ensure that the industry could be taxed similar to the systems adopted in some of the industry’s competing markets.
Meanwhile, To u r i s m Development Minister John Amaratunga told the Business Times on Thursday that plans were underway to launch the country branding promotion at the World Travel Mart in London this year.
In addition he noted that the global news channel BBC would also be selected to conduct the global marketing campaign in future.