Tax officer fined Rs.12 Bn for fraud

The Colombo High Court today imposed a fine of nearly Rs.12 billion on a former Deputy Commissioner of the Inland Revenue Department and sentenced him to 102 years rigorous imprisonment to be spent in three years after he pleaded guilty to 34 charges in one of Sri Lanka’s biggest VAT default cases amounting to Rs.3.9 billion.

He was sentenced to jail terms of three years on each of the 34 charges to run concurrently.

High Court Judge Kumuduni Wickremasinghe imposed this sentence on former Inland Revenue Officer A. Gunasiri de Soyza Jayatillake.

In April last year another former Inland Revenue Assistant Commissioner Ananda Ambepitiya was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment and fined Rs.500,000 by the same Court after he pleaded guilty to the charge of being involved in the Rs.3.9 billion VAT scam. (Manopriya Gunasekera)