“We are planning to increase tax on tobacco to raise 18 billion rupees.” Senaratne, who is also health minister, said the government would adopt the tax hike “very soon” after getting parliament's approval. “We are now considering alternative revenue proposals,” the spokesman, Rajitha Senaratne, told reporters in the capital, Colombo. “So far there is no revision in the fiscal targets,” Eran Wickramaratne, the deputy minister for state enterprises, told Reuters. The hikes were among the main requests of the IMF, which approved a $1.5-billion, three-year loan for the island nation in May, and a failure to raise revenue could jeopardise the government's ambitious fiscal consolidation plan. NewsSri Lanka plans to hike a tax on tobacco as it seeks alternative sources of income after two Supreme Court rulings delayed a plan for tax hikes to raise 100 billion rupees ($686.81 million) in revenue this year, the cabinet spokesman said on Wednesday.

Source: Sunday Times August 10, 2016 12:11 UTC