Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa has written to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake asking for tax concessions on school supplies and children’s food items in the 2027 Budget — and has built the request around the government’s own election promises.
Hiru News reported that Rajapaksa framed the appeal around rising education costs and the cost of living faced by families.
The argument from the government’s own manifesto
Rajapaksa recalled that at election rallies in August 2024, the President had pledged to remove Value Added Tax on school supplies and food under a National People’s Power government. He also noted that the NPP’s 2024 presidential election manifesto proposed a zero per cent VAT rate on essential goods and services.
That is the pivot of the letter: it does not argue for a new concession so much as ask the government to deliver one it has already promised.
What he asked to be exempted
Rajapaksa called on the government to review VAT and other applicable taxes on:
- schoolbooks and exercise books
- stationery and equipment
- essential food items required for children’s nutrition
- locally produced milk and eggs
- food products intended for infant and child nutrition
He urged that these taxes be removed through the 2027 Budget, saying such concessions would give direct relief to low- and middle-income families and would be an important step towards supporting children’s education and nutrition.
The letter itself
The document reproduced by Hiru is on Parliament letterhead and dated 9 October 2026 — two days before the report — and is addressed to Dissanayake in his capacity as President and Minister of Finance, at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo 01. It is signed by Rajapaksa as a Member of Parliament. The bulleted list of items in the Sinhala original matches the categories summarised above.
The date is worth noting: the letter was sent on 9 October and reported on 11 October, so the request is two days old rather than new on Sunday.
Not reported
Hiru’s filing does not say whether the Presidential Secretariat or the Finance Ministry has responded, does not give any estimate of the revenue the exemptions would cost, and does not state the current VAT rate applied to the listed items. It does not say when the 2027 Budget is due to be presented, or whether Rajapaksa has raised the matter in Parliament as well as by letter. It carries no government comment and no response from the NPP on the manifesto pledge cited against it.
This desk checked the Daily Mirror’s latest-news listing, the NewsFirst homepage and the Hiru News homepage for a second filing on this letter and found none; the story is Hiru’s alone at the time of writing.
