Sri Lanka, March 12 -- It is obvious that the majority of senior citizens too are in dire straits, since the withdrawal of their special interest rate of 15% per annum on FDs, sans any withholding tax (WHT) or advanced income tax (AIT) imposed.
Currently not only the interest rates on FDs have come down drastically, ranging from 8% to 9% per annum but also all citizens are forced to pay an additional tax of 5% as WHT or AIT on all interest income earned monthly or yearly through one's FDs and saving accounts - a double whammy indeed! Worse still is the cumbersome and time-consuming refund process that was introduced by the IRD in September 2023 which has only frustrated and disappointed the effected citizens further.
Simply put, the IRD ...