19 June 2018 05:12 pm
However, he said the tax on in-house medical charges would remain unchanged because they believed that if a patient could afford to obtain in-house medical care, then that patient is also capable of paying the tax.
Addressing a news briefing held at the Finance Ministry, Minister Samaraweera said, as a sensitive government, they realised that the 15% tax increase on health services at private hospitals was a burden to the people.
“The VAT increase came into effect from January 1, 2016. As an initial measure, Out-Patient Department (OPD) services were exempted from the tax increase. As a sensitive government, we understood that the average citizen also needs to make use of the facilities offered by private hospitals and that the taxes that were being charged was a big burden to them. Therefore, we removed the tax on a request made by Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne and on the instructions of the President and Prime Minister,” he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla)
Pix by Pradeep Pathirana