Sri Lanka, Sept. 28 -- Call to defer repealing Need to avoid 'carpet bombing' stressed Industry chambers and associations flashed warning lights at the authorities to make a last minute change to their plans to scrap the Simplified Value Added Tax commonly known as SVAT which had kept the export industry in good stead during the time of its enforcement.

The SVAT system is to be repealed on October 1 and thereafter taxpayers will transition to the standard VAT system from this date.

"Sri Lanka had one of the largest fraudulent VAT refund schemes from 2002 to 2004 which resulted in a loss of around Rs. 3.6 billion in tax revenue to the state. We don't want a repeat of that by retaining a system that paves the way for fraud," said Nalaka R...