TAX REGIME UNDER SCRUTINY

High taxes continue to weigh heavily on the Sri Lanka’s business community

High taxes remain an unrelenting challenge for business as the corporate community continues to grapple with the prevailing tax regime. This has been the most pressing concern in business circles for many months.

Forty-one percent of executives identify high taxes as their main concern, marking a seven point decrease from November (48%).

In the latest LMD-PEPPERCUBE Business Confidence Index (BCI) survey, high utility costs emerge as the second most pressing concern with nearly a third (32%) of respondents highlighting it as such – that’s an increase of 22 percentage points from the previous month (10%).

According to the exclusive survey conducted in the first week of December, financial instability among businesses and consumers ranks third with 27 percent of survey participants citing it as a concern – from only 10 percent in the month prior.

Interest rates tie for fourth place alongside rising raw material prices with both issues being flagged by nearly a quarter (24%) of the sample population.

On a national scale, a majority of 73 percent of participants continue to identify the economy as their primary concern, representing a negligible decline of one percentage point compared to November.

And concerns about the cost of living persist, rising from 56 percent in November to 58 percent in December. Meanwhile, the widely discussed brain drain enters the top five, increasing from seven percent in November to a disconcerting 22 percent in December.

Unemployment also makes its way into the top five national concerns, ranking fourth (with 17%) while concerns about the education system round up the top five with 16 percent of respondents highlighting it as a burning issue.

– LMD