Exporters Association of Sri Lanka praises the recent announcement by the Minister of Finance, Mangala Samaraweera who said that the current system of Suspended Value Added Tax (SVAT) will remain unchanged.

Prior to the implementation of the SVAT system, exporters experienced serious difficulties such as cash flow issues and capacity to trade.

Since 2016, when the sudden proposal to abolish SVAT was announced, the EASL, along with other export industry stakeholders, made collective representation to the government at the highest level, emphasizing the importance of continuation of the SVAT system.

Exporters are convinced that the current SVAT scheme works seamlessly, efficiently and contributes to significantly reduce the cost of doing business for both direct and indirect exporters.