The government has increased the fees charged for registering companies and societies, under a gazette notification issued by the Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Co-operative Development, Wasantha Samarasinghe.
Under the revised structure, the registration fee for a private limited company rises from Rs. 4,600 to Rs. 5,200. The fee for a public limited company has been raised from Rs. 23,000 to Rs. 26,400, and the fee for an unlimited company from Rs. 17,250 to Rs. 19,800. Approval of a company name now costs Rs. 2,600, up from Rs. 2,300.
Charges tied to societies have also gone up. Registering a society now costs Rs. 3,900, compared with Rs. 3,450 previously, while amending a society’s constitution has been raised from Rs. 1,725 to Rs. 1,900.
The revisions, published through the gazette, apply across the board to the main categories of business and community-body registration handled under the ministry, which oversees the Registrar of Companies and the Registrar of Societies.
The increases — broadly in the range of 10 to 15 percent — add to the upfront cost of formally incorporating a business or registering a voluntary society in Sri Lanka. No figure for the expected additional revenue was disclosed.
