The Supreme Court has ordered that the fundamental rights petition seeking an order to recover the Rs. 15.9 billion loss caused to the government during the reduction of taxes on imported sugar under former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s administration be taken up on June 27, Newswire reported on Monday.
The petition was called on Monday before a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Shiran Gunaratne and Sampath Abeykoon. After considering the submissions, the bench stated that the petition would be taken up for hearing on June 27.
The sugar-tax cut — an October 2020 gazette that slashed the duty on imported sugar from Rs. 50 per kilogram to 25 cents — was flagged by the Auditor General as costing the Treasury approximately Rs. 15.9 billion in foregone revenue and was cited in successive parliamentary committee reports as an early example of revenue-base erosion in the run-up to the 2022 economic crisis.
Monday’s order adds the sugar-tax FR petition to the advancing roster of Rajapaksa-era corruption cases that Cabinet spokesperson Nalinda Jayatissa cited earlier this month, and runs in parallel with the pending Supreme Court reissue notice on Gotabaya’s May 9 FR petition. June 27 is now a hard watchdate.
Source: Newswire.
