The Supreme Court has determined that Clause 34(1) of the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill is inconsistent with the Constitution, Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne informed Parliament on Monday.
The Court ruled that the Bill can still be enacted by a simple majority in the House provided the offending clause is amended at the committee stage. The ruling does not block the legislation but requires the government to redraft the specific provision before the third reading.
The Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill is part of the government’s continuing tax reform programme. It sits alongside the VAT consolidation move pushed by Deputy Minister Nishantha Jayaweera, which combined the existing 18% VAT and 2.5% Social Security Contribution Levy into a single 20.5% rate from May 1.
Sri Lanka’s tax legislation routinely faces constitutional petitions in the period between gazetting and enactment, and Supreme Court determinations of partial inconsistency are common. In most cases the government accepts the Court’s drafting fix during the committee stage rather than challenging the determination, allowing the wider Bill to clear with the simple-majority threshold.
The Speaker did not disclose the substance of Clause 34(1) or the petitioners’ objections in the brief announcement.
