27 September 2016 10:37 pm
While lodging a complaint at the Human Rights Commission (HRC) today Mr. Wijeratne said the government is trying to collect tax money even from private buses as we are providing the same service as the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB).
“Today we lodged a complaint against the Finance Minister and the Secretary and to the Inland Revenue Department Commissioner before taking the step to a bus strike,” Mr. Wijerathne said.
We have made several discussions with the Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayaka earlier and the discussion ended with a hope that didn’t come true as yet, he said.
“It is unfair to collect tax money from innocent private bus owners. We cannot pay a huge tax from day to day service. There are 20,000 private buses in the service. About 5000 buses are operating from the SLTB,” he said.
However, the government is giving Rs.1 billion per month for the SLTB. Both the Private and the SLTB services are doing the same service to the country. Because of that there should be the same treatment given to both the private bus service as to the SLTB service. (Chaturanga Pradeep)
Video by Wickrama