Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa accused the government on Wednesday of imposing higher taxes on the public while granting concessions to cigarette companies, alleging that the resulting policy gap had cost the Treasury approximately Rs. 17.3 billion in foregone revenue.
Speaking during the parliamentary debate on the economy, Premadasa said the government’s revenue growth had largely come through higher taxation on individuals and businesses — including increases in Value Added Tax and other levies — while excise duty on cigarettes was reduced despite explicit World Health Organization recommendations to maintain elevated tobacco taxation as a public-health measure.
He urged the government to reconsider the cigarette tax policy and redirect the additional income toward consumer relief and reductions in the cost of essential goods. The SJB leader also raised broader concerns over the impact of taxation on businesses, employment, retirees and the wider economy.
The intervention puts the tobacco-tax question back into the budget debate ahead of the Finance Ministry’s June 12 brief on tax revenue and proposals to lift revenue toward 20% of GDP, and follows Premadasa’s earlier push for the menstrual-hygiene-products zero rating in late May and his Section 185A objections raised in May over Inland Revenue arrest powers. The tobacco market itself is dominated by Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC, now led by Sarmad Abbasi as Managing Director and CEO from May 1.
Source: Newswire.
