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Sri Lanka hopes to raise five billion US dollars
following negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
for a financial safety net in mid April. “The final negotiations
with the IMF team will begin soon after Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe’s visit to China in April,” Central Bank (CB)
Governor Arjuna Mahendran told Sunday Observer Business.
Megapolis project:
The Western Region Megapolis Project envisages
investments of almost US $ 13 billion to implement the projects
under its transport development sector alone. Half of it goes to
build new expressways, according to the megapolis master plan.
Western Region Megapolis Planning Project (WRMPP) recently unveiled
the strategic interventions and the projects to be implemented under
this scheme to create the island’s first megapolis,
Sri Lankan exporters have called upon the
government to take up the import tariff charged by China on seafood
when negotiating a free trade agreement as they seek to diversify
markets.
The drop in global tea prices will only be a
short term benefit for Sri Lankan tea exporters who need to focus on
enhancing quality, value addition and branding to be competitive and
increase its global market share, industry experts said.
Economists and tax experts said the
reintroduction of the Capital Gains Tax and reversing the direct to
indirect tax ratio from 20:80 to 40:60 by 2020 would adversely
affect investors and low income masses as a greater proportion of
their income would be taxed and the situation would aggravate when
income levels drop.
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