NewsIn today's News Tax exemption removal worries Lankan gem tradeSri Lanka’s Gem and Jewellery industry is falling apart, accusing the government of neglect, not properly fostering the sector and removing a key tax concession in recent tax developments. Industry officials, making the claim at a media briefing on Wednesday, said exports were in jeopardy due to the current practices and policies of the National Gem and Jewellery Authority (NGJA). Since 1979 the industry had a tax exemption on direct exports and foreign currency sales, but this tax exemption facility has been withdrawn in the new Inland Revenue Act. To explain the impending crisis to the industry which could likely result in a halt in gem mining in Sri Lanka, a media briefing was called jointly by the Sri Lanka Gem and Jewellery Association, the Lanka Gem Dealers and Miners Association and China Fort Gem and Jewellery Traders Association, Beruwela, Ratnapura in Colombo. Associated at the briefing were A.H. M Imtizam, Chairman, Sri Lanka Gem and Jewellery Association; Punsiri Tennakoon, Chairman, Lanka Gem Dealers and Miners Association, Ratnapura and Akbar Cassim, Chairman, The China Fort Gem and Jewellery Traders Association, Beruwela.

Source: Sunday Times April 19, 2018 01:18 UTC