Acre Levy to be suspended forthwith

Agriculture and Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the Government has decided to cancel the Acre Levy from now.

Minister Amaraweera stated that the Government has decided to suspend the collection of acre levy for agricultural land.

The minister mentioned this in a discussion with the Development Officers yesterday (12). The Acre levy is a tax charged at the rate of Rs.100 for agricultural land. The tax is collected by the Agrarian Development Department through Development Officers. The amount is credited to the government revenue. President Ranil Wickremesinghe stated in a Cabinet meeting that there is no need to collect the amount collected as the Acre Levy as the Government has to spend more money to collect it than the income received by charging this tax.

The Minister also mentioned that steps will be taken to stop the charging of the acre levy in the future. Several decades ago, activities such as the issuance of bicycle licences as well as the issuance of licences for radios were carried out, but later they were suspended. The amount lost to the Government by charging the acre levy is about Rs. One Billion.

The Minister said the President said that it is not appropriate to charge that amount from the farmers.

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