Undeclared monies in foreign banks can be brought home
The Government will allow Sri Lankans holding undeclared funds in foreign banks to transfer them to Colombo, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said yesterday. “This should not be misconstrued as a blanket amnesty. We will allow those who have earned the funds through ‘legitimate’ means,” he told the Sunday Times.
He said even those who held foreign accounts in Swiss banks and in offshore companies named in the Panama Papers, will be eligible.
On May 17 last year, the Sunday Times exclusively revealed the names of Sri Lankans holding Swiss Bank accounts. Today, the Sunday Times has been given exclusive access by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in the United States and Suddeutsche Zeitung in Germany to bare names of Sri Lankan companies and individuals in the Panama papers. See Political Commentary on Pages 14 and 15.
Minister Karunanayake said the Government was studying the practices adopted in Indonesia and Malaysia, among other countries, with regard to funds their nationals hold in foreign banks. These new measures will come into effect when the liberalised exchange control laws take effect early next year, he said.
In Indonesia, early this year, its Finance Minister invited those who have placed their monies abroad to report such activity to the Government and pay tax. This was a prelude to a tax amnesty. In Malaysia, the island of Lebuan, a federal territory, charges international companies registered there only three per cent on any income. The move is an incentive for their nationals overseas to invest their monies in banks in Lebuan, a safe haven.
One of the reasons preventing a “full tax amnesty” on those holding monies abroad is the ongoing investigations into assets held overseas by former Government leaders and their relatives. Though a Presidential Task Force for Assets Recovery was set up, it has so far not been successful in identifying any foreign account.
(Source: The Sunday Times)
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yest another farce by the cynic ravi who knows nothing about how global banking systems operate something hw will never get to know. idiot as he is just becos he wears a tie and coat he thinks he can gain recognition. the world bank is corrupt ….ask TRUMP of the 1.3 billions pledged by the IBRD he must have already paiid out at leasy 25 percent of it to the pimps at the WORLD BANK
Is the situation that DESPERATE my dear minister, two years after you lot voted into government? Where are the billions of money you alleged to know Rajapakshas have hidden away in foreign accounts? Didn’t the newspaper reported that you were being helped by CIA and RAW to track them? Allegations, like a boomarang, seem to coming back towards you lot now!
Indra,
CIA was busy rigging the US elections hand-in-hand with Kremlin and RAW is busy protecting Indian PM from corruption allegations.
They shelved Brother Ravi’s request for searching the missing MR1 billions on the backburner.
In the meantime, Brother Ravi has to service the monumental debts left behind by MR1 having created white elephants by the dozen which fail to bring in revenue to service debt.