How Does Sri Lanka Compare With Lower Middle-Income Economies?

AndrewJin said:

well, I don't think spicy food is really an issue. Many Chinese can handle spicy hot pot. My breakfast starts with spicy beef rice noddle covered with red chilly oil. The thing is probally about curry, some like it some not. To me, curry looks like sh*t, but it doesn't make it less interesting for me to travel to Thailand where curry is also found in local cuisine. And I am also willing to try new food, I am just travling, not eating it everyday!

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You can find all types of restaurants in Sri Lanka if you know the place. Even guides may not know some good places
There is a site called yamu.lk (Yamu means "Let's go" in Sinhala ) which has list and reviews of various restaurants from small to big. There are a rather large number of Chinese restaurants in western Sri Lanka
https://www.yamu.lk/cuisine

Godman said:

You can find all types of restaurants in Sri Lanka if you know the place. Even guides may not know some good places
There is a site called yamu.lk (Yamu means "Let's go" in Sinhala ) which has list and reviews of various restaurants from small to big. There are a rather large number of Chinese restaurants in western Sri Lanka
https://www.yamu.lk/cuisine

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Yamu!

@Gibbs
Thanks for the tag mate. Kelegama's article was really enlightening dont like him that much after his support to ETCA

First i think the problem is in SL's tax structure. Our direct tax is so much less it is at 11% while it is normally 40% in rest of the world. So the majority of the tax burden falls on poor and middle class as well. But sadly non of the governments like to change the tax rates but rather play with indirect taxes.

Saradiel said:

@Gibbs
Thanks for the tag mate. Kelegama's article was really enlightening dont like him that much after his support to ETCA

First i think the problem is in SL's tax structure. Our direct tax is so much less it is at 11% while it is normally 40% in rest of the world. So the majority of the tax burden falls on poor and middle class as well. But sadly non of the governments like to change the tax rates but rather play with indirect taxes.

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Exactly.. I think fiscal consolidation have to be a priority also as you said the taxation structure is way too complicated with so many indirect taxes.. That need to be carried out

Also glad that you're back machun.. Hopefully @Azizam will come as well

Saradiel said:

@Gibbs
Thanks for the tag mate. Kelegama's article was really enlightening dont like him that much after his support to ETCA

First i think the problem is in SL's tax structure. Our direct tax is so much less it is at 11% while it is normally 40% in rest of the world. So the majority of the tax burden falls on poor and middle class as well. But sadly non of the governments like to change the tax rates but rather play with indirect taxes.

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Our direct tax is low because our indirect tax is high. So it's not fair to compare us with the rest of the world on direct tax simply based on the percentage we tax.

No matter what happens; the final outcome should be that the government could fulfill it's monetary targets by direct or indirect taxing methods without putting too much strain on the public.

Gibbs said:

Exactly.. I think fiscal consolidation have to be a priority also as you said the taxation structure is way too complicated with so many indirect taxes.. That need to be carried out

Also glad that you're back machun.. Hopefully @Azizam will come as well

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Actually this government before it gets elected promised that they will change the tax structure in SL and raise the % of direct taxes in tax revenue. Instead of doing that RW decreased the tax rate that too amid a monetary crisis. But increased indirect taxes and put the burden on poor and came up with stupid capital gain taxes which discourage investors.

Would a government with right mind come up with capital gains tax if they want to encourage investment? And again one time taxes to fund their election promises of salary increases and price reduction in fuel. I was not a support of MR's economic management but this lot is proving to be worse than them.

I myself know people who evade taxes ( a CIMA lecturer who did classes to us, you know these CIMA class people they earn money a lot) because IR dept people always get his name wrong in their mails. None of the SL governments have initiated to catch the big fellows who evade tax

Saradiel said:

Actually this government before it gets elected promised that they will change the tax structure in SL and raise the % of direct taxes in tax revenue. Instead of doing that RW decreased the tax rate that too amid a monetary crisis. But increased indirect taxes and put the burden on poor and came up with stupid capital gain taxes which discourage investors.

Would a government with right mind come up with capital gains tax if they want to encourage investment? And again one time taxes to fund their election promises of salary increases and price reduction in fuel. I was not a support of MR's economic management but this lot is proving to be worse than them.

I myself know people who evade taxes ( a CIMA lecturer who did classes to us, you know these CIMA class people they earn money a lot) because IR dept people always get his name wrong in their mails. None of the SL governments have initiated to catch the big fellows who evade tax

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RW is reaping what he saw.

I was in Sri Lanka(Kandy) from 1994 to 1998. Didn't go to school for 3 days during World cup India , Sri Lanka Match.
Back in those days Sri Lanka was much cleaner

Star Wars said:

Back in those days Sri Lanka was much cleaner

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Actually since the end of the civil conflict conditions are far better both in terms of infrastructure and sanitation.. If you compare

Gibbs said:

Exactly.. I think fiscal consolidation have to be a priority also as you said the taxation structure is way too complicated with so many indirect taxes.. That need to be carried out

Also glad that you're back machun.. Hopefully @Azizam will come as well

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I think azizam is permabanned bro

Saradiel said:

Actually this government before it gets elected promised that they will change the tax structure in SL and raise the % of direct taxes in tax revenue. Instead of doing that RW decreased the tax rate that too amid a monetary crisis. But increased indirect taxes and put the burden on poor and came up with stupid capital gain taxes which discourage investors.

Would a government with right mind come up with capital gains tax if they want to encourage investment? And again one time taxes to fund their election promises of salary increases and price reduction in fuel. I was not a support of MR's economic management but this lot is proving to be worse than them.

I myself know people who evade taxes ( a CIMA lecturer who did classes to us, you know these CIMA class people they earn money a lot) because IR dept people always get his name wrong in their mails. None of the SL governments have initiated to catch the big fellows who evade tax

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Well they didnt go fully with the Rs10,000 increase after problems came. I think they increased it by Rs.2,500
I believe we should slightly decrease cooperate taxes while increasing income tax rates specially for people with extremely high income. We need to get rid of special Tax rates for Professionals. Its extremely unfair and leaves most of the big earners with little taxes even the IMF said it plus it makes the tax system more complex
Capital gains Tax is not dumb but the way its implemented and where its implemented makes it dumb and Sri Lanka is certainly not the best place to implement it
And as you said tax evasion is a really big problem

But we are looking at revenue problem too much what about spending even though we have free education and free healthcare as a percentage of GDP the spending is rather low on them. So ending the bloated public sector ,better organization and getting rid of non-stratergic SOEs such as Lak Sathosa should be looked at