ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Inland Revenue Department (IRD) will look into lower Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax deduction for members of parliament, Media Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa said.
His response for a query at this week’s Cabinet media briefing comes nearly a week after an opposition legislator shared his May allowance details received for his service as an MP.
Though the MP had received a gross salary of more than 322,000 rupees as the gross salary, the PAYE deduction was only 3,728.92 rupees.
However, tax experts say an ordinary person receiving the same amount of the MP salary will have to pay more than 24,300 rupees, as per the latest tax rates.
Kalutara District MP Jagath Withana from the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) shared payslips on Facebook showing his salary, allowances and tax deductions from January to May 2025.
The documents revealed that in May, Withana earned Rs. 322,713.92, while only Rs. 3,728.53 was deducted as Advance Personal Income Tax (APIT).
“I don’t know about that,” Minister Jayatissa told when he was asked why there is a lower PAYE deduction for MPs at this week’s Cabinet press briefing.
“The Inland Revenue Department will look into that.”
It was not immediately clear on the basis of the tax deduction calculations for MPs.
All allowances of the people in the street are taxed. Before the current currency crisis some fuel and transport/fuel allowances workers were not taxed.
At the time parliamentarians were getting tax free cars. In other countries it is customary for parlaimentarians to get a ‘electoral allowance’ re-imbursements of train tickets to the capital and similar expenses.
Discriminatory tax privileges between the rulers has and the ordinary citizens has been a problem for some years. At one time public servants paid no tax at all.
Higher tax rates on the public and better enforcement has made people more aware on income tax. (Colombo/July 16/2025)
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