Govt. postpones SVAT abolition

Sri Lanka’s premier trade chamber, Chamber of Commerce, yesterday welcomed the decision by the Finance Ministry to postpone the abolition of Simplified Value Added Tax (SVAT) system that was due to come into effect 
on April 1.
The chamber thanked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for intervening in the matter and actively engaging with the business community. 
The chamber together with other private sector stakeholders made strong submissions to the government to maintain the current SVAT system until a robust VAT refund mechanism is put in place. 

Previously, the SVAT system was to be abolished on January 1, 2017 as announced in budget 2017, but was subsequently postponed to April 1, 2017 following the meetings the private sector had with Prime Minster Wickremesinghe in early January.