The imposing of the Super Gains Tax, introduced recently with retrospective effect and which caused huge controversies, would begin from today (30 October) and that the deadline for payment by the relevant companies be 31 December 2015, said a senior official from the Finance Ministry.

While Parliament approved the imposition of this tax recently, there have been continued accusations that such taxes being imposed with retrospective effect is unethical.

However, in response the government has stated that this is a once-off tax and would not be imposed again.

This Super Gains Tax stipulates that any company or individual with a profit after tax of more than Rs. 2,000 million during the 2013/14 financial year is liable to pay 25 per cent of this profit as tax. Though this tax was introduced during the tenure of the 100 day interim government, it was able to be adopted only under the present national government.

The senior official from the Finance Ministry told adaderanabiz.lk that several companies are already preparing to pay this tax he added that they plan to raise a revenue of Rs. 50 billion through this.

While expressing his views recently, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake had said that this tax would be effective on only some 35 companies in Sri Lanka while there are some 72,800 companies in the island.

According to information, this tax could heavily impact some 30 companies listed with the Colombo Stock Exchange.

According to research data from Navara Securities which is a stock broking company, there are 30 companies in Sri Lanka which have recorded after-tax profits of over Rs. 02 billion during the 2013/14 financial year and that they are liable to this Super Gains Tax.

Accordingly, John Keells Group would have to pay Rs. 3.2 billion, Commercial Bank Rs. 2.6 billion, Ceylon Tobacco Company Rs. 2.2 billion, Carsons, Bukit Darah, Hatton National Bank Rs. 1.9 billion each, Distilleries Lanka Rs. 1.5 billion, Sri Lanka Telecom Rs. 1.3 billion, Dialog Rs. 1.3 billion, Lanka India Oil Company Rs. 1.2 billion and Aitken Spence Rs. 1.1 billion as Super Gains Tax.

Below is the detailed data from Navara Securities: