Beedi leaves import tax slashed – State Minister

Finance State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said that the purpose of the Beedi tax amendment is to properly recover the amount of tax lost to the government so far. Siyambalapitiya said that so far, a high tax of Rs.5,000 was levied per kilo of Beedi leaves when importing them, and due to the impractical levying of such a high tax, many importers of Beedi leaves imported 75 percent of the import of Beedi leaves through informal means, due to which the government has lost a huge tax amount owing to it.

Accordingly, in a discussion held recently at the Presidential Secretariat with the participation of the Beedi Producer’s Association, the Beedi leaves import duty which had been Rs.5,000 per kilo so far has been reduced to Rs. 250, and in order to cover the resulting loss, the tax amount of Rs.2.00 per Beedi which was levied so far, will be increased to Rs.3.50, the State Minister said.

For this reason, Siyambalapitiya mentioned that the people who work under the registered Beedi manufacturers, numbering around 700, as well as the lakhs of people who earn very little money by producing Beedi as a domestic livelihood industry, will be able to carry out their jobs securely in the future.

The State Minister said that due to this tax revision and changes made, the price of Beedi will not be increased in any way, and these amendments have been made in order to correct the distorted tax on Beedi leaves to recover the tax loss by the government and also to provide some relief to the Beedi manufacturers.

Siyambalapitiya further said that the attention of the government has been focused on registering the people producing Beedi on a small scale and subjecting them to some regulation and providing them with some coverage as a protection.

However, since the Beedi industry is a cigarette industry, this does not mean that the government is working to popularize this industry and it is expected that this will protect the livelihood of lakhs of people who are engaged in this industry, and make way for the government to recover the lost tax due to a distorted tax that was charged until now on Beedi leaves, Siyambalapitiya emphasized.

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