Govt. grants duty and rate relief to tourism sector

• No tax for metal detectors & security scanners
• Govt. to give a debt moratorium till the end of this year

By Kelum Bandara 

The Cabinet decided yesterday to grant a tax exemption for the import of security equipment to be used in the tourism sector following the terror strikes on April 21, Daily Mirror learns. 

Accordingly, those in the industry can import equipment such as metal detectors and security scanners without any tax. 

Besides, the Government also announced an economic relief package for the terrorism sector to recover from the impact of the serial bombings that also targeted three high-end hotels in Colombo killing more than 50 foreign nationals. 

According to sources, the Government had agreed to give a debt moratorium till the end of this year for the sector to recover from the loss.  Besides, bank interest rates for loans would be reduced and also the rate of Value Added Tax (VAT) to five percent from 15 percent.