COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s 2017 budget plan will seek to boost revenues through a capital gain tax on properties, simplify tax collection and offer incentives to spur exports, though progress will depend on the coalition government agreeing on economic priorities, analysts say.
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, who will present the budget on Thursday, expects to bring down the budget deficit to 4.7 percent of gross domestic product from this year’s 5.4 percent in line with the commitment the government gave the International Monetary Fund in return for securing a $1.5 billion loan.
“It will be a progress-oriented, people-friendly budget with financial discipline,” the businessman-turned-politician, told Reuters on Tuesday.
