The government should allow the Board of Investment (BOI) approved manufacturing companies to feed more of their exports products to the local market, the newly elected President of Free Trade Zone Manufacturing Association, (FTZMA) Jatinder Biala said at their AGM on Wednesday.
Currently BOI companies are allowed to release 20% of their products to the local market and he said that this should be increased to 50%.
“Taxes should be charged on this and the initiative would result in lot of quality goods entering the Sri Lankan market and it will also help to save Forex to Sri Lanka and help government to save a lot of foreign exchange.”
He also said that the time is now opportune to change some of the aging labour laws especially with regard to female employment. “We request to remove night work restrictions for women and also increase legal number of overtime hour for women from 60 to 100.”
The government must only declare minimum wages and should not interfere in Ad hoc mandatory wages revision. “We like to see legislature to engage in outsource work.
It also said that the BOI companies have been playing a key role towards increase of export revenue to Sri Lanka and they account to 70% of the 2020 export turnover USD 6,449 million. The total FDI to BOI from us in 2019 was USD 1,189 million. FTZMA also played a vital role during Covid 19 and helped numerous ways to various individuals or zone companies.
FTZMA strongly believes that ISFTA /ETCA negotiations with India should be expedited so that a win-win situation can be achieved. He said that FTZMA hopes that the new Government will definitely contribute to the socio-economic progress of Sri Lanka and will bring back confidence of investors. “We propose that the Government must reinstate BOI to its former position and a one stop shop system should be there.
We also expect formation of long term policies so that investors will not have to face a dilemma due to frequent changes in the policies/tariff etc.”
The Government must also look to speed up the proposed FTAs with India and China.
Abolishing the mandatory health check requirement of the issuance of visas to expatriates under the BOI companies and some other related visa issues too should be addressed.
Meanwhile, BOI Director General Sanjaya Mohottala said that the ground breaking ceremony for the proposed Eravul Fabric Park will be held in January and several foreign companies including Vietnam are pledging investments to the tune of US dollars 100 million there.
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