Successive governments have completely neglected the export sector for far too long which has resulted in exports declining by the year, said President of exporters association (EASL) Harin de Silva.
Speaking at their Annual General Meeting at Hotel Ramada, he said that time and again exporters have stressed the importance and need for a strong and positive political will and vision to drive the export sector to reach its full potential.
The EASL has always been extremely vocal in asking successive regimes to include the association in its endeavors to shape export policy through a public private sector partnership whereby a new model of advocacy is developed under the new government’s slogan of good governance.
He said that the present government has looked at their suggestion positively and asked to make representations to the government on a yearly basis. “This is a welcome move,” he said.
Commenting on the restoring GSP+ back to Sri Lanka he said it will most certainly come with fair share of challenges. “Those exporters who shifted away from markets based in the EU since GSP+ was withdrawn from Sri Lanka will take time to re-establish themselves back in markets based in the EU.”
“Limited production capacities in Sri Lanka have severely hampered the Sri Lankan export fraternity to cater to the additional demand the GSP.
“With many key geopolitical developments such as Brexit shaping the course of global economics, it is fair to say that Sri Lanka has a massive challenge in being competitive in our exports when compared to countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia who have continued to grow their export sectors in spite of external constraints of this nature. Capacity constrains in terms of labour shortages is one challenge that springs to mind which has been highlighted in many forums by stake holders. “With Brexit now unraveling itself in the EU Sri Lanka is faced with a very unique challenge that will have negative impact on realizing the GSP+ benefits especially for sectors like the apparel sector as the UK accounts for 40% of Sri Lanka’s apparel exports into the EU,” he opined.
Meanwhile Minister of State for Enterprise Development Sujeeva Senasinghe said that the government should try to force the ‘rich’ to pay more taxes and reduces the indirect tax revenue which is around 80%
He said that the affluent pays only around 11% taxes of the total of GDP and this should move up to 20%. “The government has in the recent times moved this up from 11% to 14% and a further 5% increase is needed.”
He emphasized that no new taxes were needed but only loop holes in the tax system should be tightened. He said that these additional tax revenue can be used for infrastructure development of the country. (SS)
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