The Ceylon Tea Board notes that tea factory owners have made it mandatory to register with the Inland Revenue Department for Simplified Value Added Tax (SVAT).
Today (02), the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Mahinda Amaraweera, held a special review meeting with the officials of the Ceylon Tea Board regarding the tea leaf auction.
This discussion was held to avoid delays in the Tea Auction due to tea factory owners not being registered with the Inland Revenue Department for this simplified value added tax.
The Minister advised the Ceylon Tea Board to take the necessary steps for the auction of tea leaves without waiting until such general issues escalate.
Also, instead of the current method of auctioning tea leaves, the minister advised to immediately start the auction of tea leaves according to Direct Auction and Forward Contract, which are methods of auctioning tea leaves followed in many countries.
Accordingly, the Minister instructed the Secretary of the Ministry, Mr. Janaka Dharmakeerthi, to immediately set up a suitable programme for the promotion of this direct auction system and forward contract auction system this year.
The officials of the Tea Board also mentioned that the tea industry owners are entitled to many special concessions on the basis of registration for simplified value added tax and therefore Registered Identified Suppliers and Registered Identified Purchasers are exempted from VAT.
Because of this, all tea factory owners have made it mandatory to register for the simplified value added tax, the Ceylon Tea Board emphasized.
