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Probe needed over leaked information about sugar tax: Manusha
By Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama
COLOMBO (Daily Mirror) - It is questionable how businessmen received information about an increase in the import tax on sugar even before the proposal was presented to the Cabinet, Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara asked.
Addressing the media, he said that only Sri Lanka Customs officials were aware of the tax revision.
He also questioned which parties were aware of the tax increase and emphasized the need to conduct an investigation to determine whether anyone had leaked the information to outsiders.
"We raised our voice regarding the sugar fraud back then, and we will continue to raise our voice if there is a fraud even today. We will not keep our mouths shut when there is fraud or a mistake committed. We need to find out what happened here.
The real issue here is how the information of the decision to increase the tax got to the businessmen. To be honest, even the Cabinet members were not aware of the decision to increase the tax.
Customs officials knew this, and how this information leaked to those businessmen should be investigated.
"Even the Cabinet decision to increase salaries for government employees was leaked and some protested, demanding to increase salaries following that, just to gain benefits and make the impression that their demands led to a salary increase.
And as soon as the Government decides to impose a tax, some businessmen import those items. When the government decides to reduce taxes, this same group hides those specific items. The question we have to find the answer to is how this information reaches those businessmen. I am sure that information does not leak from the Cabinet," the minister said.
"An investigation must be conducted in this regard. There is a group that always gains profit from changes in taxes. That is why the President set a maximum retail price for sugar. With that decision, it will not be possible to gain profits from this tax increase," declared Minister Manusha Nanayakkara.
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