Sri Lankan Parliament Enacts Three Key Tax and Investment Amendment Acts
Colombo, The Gulf Observer: Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Dr Jagath Wickramaratne announced that he endorsed the certificates on three Bills on December 17, 2025, enabling them to come into force as Acts of Parliament.
The Speaker endorsed the certificates on the Social Security Contribution Levy (Amendment) Bill, the Betting and Gaming Levy (Amendment) Bill, and the Strategic Development Projects (Amendment) Bill.
The Social Security Contribution Levy (Amendment) Bill seeks to amend the Social Security Contribution Levy Act, No. 25 of 2022. It was presented to Parliament on October 9, 2025, and passed on December 5, 2025.
The Betting and Gaming Levy (Amendment) Bill, also passed on December 5, 2025, provides for amendments to Section 2 of the principal enactment. The amendments limit the application of the 10 per cent gross collection levy to the period from April 1, 2023, to October 1, 2025. The levy on gross collections from persons engaged in the business of bookmakers or gambling is increased to 18 per cent from October 1, 2025.
The legislation also increases the casino entrance levy payable by Sri Lankan citizens to US$100.
The Strategic Development Projects (Amendment) Bill, presented to Parliament on November 14, 2025, was passed on December 5, 2025, to amend the Strategic Development Projects Act, No. 14 of 2008.
The amendments reduce the maximum tax holiday period from 25 years to 10 years and introduce a new process for identifying strategic development projects. Under the new framework, the Board of Investment (BOI) will identify projects and refer them to the Ministry of Finance for a mandatory ex-ante cost-benefit analysis before any tax holiday or concession is granted.
The amendments also introduce enhanced ex-post monitoring requirements for the BOI, including powers to impose administrative penalties or restrict or revoke exemptions in cases of non-compliance with key performance indicators.
In addition, the legislation requires relevant tax returns to be filed and directs the Ministry of Finance to publish an annual report on tax expenditures associated with such projects.
Following the Speaker’s endorsement, the three Bills have come into force as the Social Security Contribution Levy (Amendment) Act, No. 24 of 2025; the Betting and Gaming Levy (Amendment) Act, No. 25 of 2025; and the Strategic Development Projects (Amendment) Act, No. 26 of 2025, respectively.
