No room should be given for the government to impose a tax on the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees’ Trust Fund (ETF), the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) stresses.
JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake at a press conference held in Colombo Tuesday told reporters the workforce must be given the privilege to enjoy the benefits of these funds in which they invested after years of work.
“The government is currently eyeing to impose a 14 per cent tax on these funds,” he pointed out.
Dissanayake however vowed to take possible measures in a bid to prevent the government from imposing the tax on the funds.
“These funds are only under the guardianship of the government. However, it incurred a loss to the tune of Rs.9.6 billion after the controversial bond scam,” he added.
Dissanayake also accused the previous governments of misusing its authority to manipulate the employees’ trust fund. “Previous governments invested in bankrupt companies from money they received from these funds,” he charged.
