The Bharatanatyam Guinness World Record at Galle Face on June 14 is allegedly a sham. @CIABOC_SriLanka investigating why participants were charged Rs 5,000 each and forced to bear travel costs, while organisers took the glory - not a cultural triumph, but a money-making stunt.
PickMe pays 18% VAT on the full ride fare. Uber pays 18% VAT on its service fee only. Same trip. Same road. Ten times the tax burden on the local company.
PickMe can't absorb that gap, so it gets passed to you. Higher fares. Every time. And beyond ride-hailing, every local SaaS platform and homegrown digital service faces the same asymmetry, making it rational for Sri Lankan entrepreneurs to simply incorporate in Singapore instead.
Here's what makes it worse: it was COPF that pushed to bring foreign digital platforms into the VAT net in the first place. Before that, Uber paid nothing. We fixed half the problem. The Govt then implemented the framework without equalising the tax base, and handed foreign platforms a structural advantage inside a net we built to level the playing field.
I raised this in @ParliamentLK on June 23rd. The VAT threshold fight was won. This one isn't over.
Two policy decisions. Both hurting the poorest Sri Lankans.
1️⃣ Raising taxes on corn imports → chicken and egg prices rise → families who can barely afford protein pay more
2️⃣ Importing 150,000 metric tons of rice → paddy farmers can't sell their harvest at a viable price
I asked the Ministry of Agriculture directly at COPF: do you not see a problem here?
They admitted they do.
And the Paddy Marketing Board's own capacity to intervene in the market? Maximum 3-4 times a year.
Meanwhile the Shakthi Rice Cooperative — which we built to break the rice oligopoly and give small millers and paddy farmers a fighting chance, was shut down by the same officials in 2020 with no replacement solution.
Restart Shakthi. Stop policy that punishes the poor from both ends. 📹
https://t.co/v6jOUpijKt
#SriLanka #COPF #FoodPolicy #PaddyFarmers #Agriculture #LKA
Three motorcyclists have been fined by the Mullaitivu Magistrate’s Court after pleading guilty to violating traffic laws while travelling to a commemorative event held in Mullivaikkal last month.
The suspects were arrested by the Puthukudiyiruppu Police on May 23 following investigations into reports that several motorcyclists had violated road traffic regulations while travelling to Mullivaikkal on May 18.
Police investigations revealed that the three suspects had travelled by motorcycle from the Kilinochchi area towards Mullivaikkal.
The suspects were produced before the Mullaitivu Magistrate’s Court on May 23 and were released on three surety bails of Rs. 150,000 each.
When the case was taken up again on June 16, the three suspects pleaded guilty to the charges.
The court subsequently imposed fines of Rs. 11,500, Rs. 11,500 and Rs. 17,500 respectively before ordering their release. (Newswire)