Economy

Sri Lanka PAYE tax thresholds to be raised, minimum Rs150,000: President

Published

1 year ago

December 18, 2024

Sri Lanka has negotiated with the International Monetary Fund to raise the income tax threshold to 150,000 rupees a month from the current 100,000 rupees, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said.

“The wages of a person earning 150,000 rupees will be 100 percent free from tax,” President Dissanayake told parliament.

“The 6 percent tax on the first slab of 500,000 rupees will be raised to one million rupees.”

“The tax on someone earning 200,000 rupees will be 71 percent free of tax. The salary of a person earning 250,000 will be 61 percent free. The salary of a person earning 300,000 rupees will be 47 percent freed.

“The salary of a person who gets 350,000 a month will be 25 percent freed.

“We have been able to revise PAYE tax to give bigger benefits to lower income earnings and lower benefits to higher income earners.”

A witholding tax on bank deposits to be raised from 5 to 10 percent. However there will be process where exemptions can be claimed by lower income earners, he said.

Value added tax on milk and yoghurt will also be removed, he said.

Corporate tax on services export which was to be raised to 30 percent will be 15 percent, he said.

Economy

Sri Lanka literacy hits record 97.4%, gender gap closes for first time

Published

4 hours ago

April 12, 2026

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Sri Lanka has achieved a historic education milestone, with literacy rising to 97.4% in 2024, up from 95.7% in 2012.

For the first time since 1881, the literacy gender gap has closed, with males at 97.9% and females at 97.0%.

Digital literacy has reached 67.6%, while computer literacy stands at 34.7%, highlighting Sri Lanka’s growing digital transformation.

Economy

$ 900 m in four months: Port City Colombo signals new investment era

Published

1 day ago

April 11, 2026

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From November 2025 to March, Port City Colombo secured approximately $ 900 million in investments, an almost unprecedented surge for a project that had seen gradual traction in its early years amid broader macroeconomic challenges. The timing is not accidental.

After a prolonged period marked by the Easter Sunday attacks, the global shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Sri Lanka’s economic collapse, the project remained largely in a holding pattern.

International marketing efforts began to gain momentum from late 2025 onwards, as conditions began to stabilise.

“The macro story had to align first,” Aluwihare explained. “You cannot market a country when the fundamentals are unstable. Now, we are seeing recovery, policy alignment, and growing confidence, and we are finally seeing the results.”

From real estate to a ring-fenced financial ecosystem

Port City Colombo’s most significant transformation has been conceptual rather than physical. Originally envisioned as a waterfront real estate development, it has evolved into a fully ring-fenced services export Special Economic Zone (SEZ), enabled by the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act.

Economy

Sri Lanka’s Official Reserves fall 3.5%in March – CBSL

Published

3 days ago

April 9, 2026

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Sri Lanka’s Official Reserve Assets have decreased by 3.5% to USD 7,019 million in March 2026, according to the latest data of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The CBSL states that the decrease is from USD 7,270 million reported in February 2026.

The CBSL further states that the figure for March includes the swap arrangement with the People’s Bank of China.