The new Foreign Exchange Act would further simplify tight regulations that were in place, said Assistant Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Yvette Fernando.
She was speaking at the ‘Public - Private Sector Dialogue on Overcoming the Regulatory and Compliance Challenges in the Banking Sector’ seminar organized by Ceylon Chamber of Commerce yesterday. She said that there won’t be any taxes on Sri Lankans working overseas and bringing back their earnings to Sri Lanka. “Only a remittance fee of 1% will be charged and that too for over US$ 1 million.
She said that if these earning are reinvested in Sri Lanka there would not be a remittance fee.
Fernando disclosed that over the years the controls for foreign earnings and investments have been relaxed and today one does not have to go to obtain Central Bank approval for every single transaction.
Meanwhile Reyaz Mihular, Managing Partner KPMG Sri Lanka, who made the key note address said the new financial regulations introduced recently have created issues for the banking sector. He said they are yet to find out if the new regulations were coming in to effect from the financial year commencing April or from the beginning of the year.
He also said that some of the tax exemptions enjoyed by the banks have been taken off.
Mihular also expressed dissatisfaction with regard to lack of data in public domains. “These make future planning and investments more difficult and more time consuming. In contrast in foreign countries there is data in abundance which make company’s planning more easy and economical.”
CFO, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, Nandika Buddhipala said today the bulk of the deposits in banks were from senior citizens. “We hope that (senior citizens) would not be asked to give expiations and charged high taxes each time they want to make withdrawals.” (SS)
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