Sri Lanka: general strike against the explosion of taxes against a backdrop of inflation
Sri Lankans demonstrate against the increase in income tax decided in the midst of a historic economic crisis.
Colombo, February 22, 2023. AP - Eranga Jayawardena
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
In Sri Lanka, call for a general strike this Wednesday, March 1: unions in most sectors have called for a day of walkout, to protest against a very high tax increase.
This measure was applied from January in order to bail out the coffers of the Sri Lankan state, a country in crisis, and which has not had the means to repay its loans for a year.
To try to limit the paralysis, the government banned essential service workers from striking.
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With our correspondent in the region,
Sébastien Farcis
Jayathu Perera did the math: since the tax reform that came into effect in January, this Central Bank executive pays five times more tax on his income.
Or 260 euros per month.
Intolerable.
“
Since 2020, prices have doubled,”
he explains.
So the value of our salary is already twice as low.
And now they are multiplying our taxes by five.
Employees like me can't get by anymore.
Instead of fighting tax evasion, the government decides to increase the people who are already paying, it's unfair.
»
These radical measures should make it possible to almost triple tax revenues, and were taken to clean up the state accounts and obtain a new loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
But this raises a wind of anger.
"
In 15 years that I have been working, this is the first time that I have seen all the sectors united in a common strike
", says Jayathu Perera.
The Sri Lankan president has just banned employees in the essential transport, energy or food delivery sectors from striking, under penalty of dismissal.
But the unions say they are ready to challenge this order.
►Also read: Sri Lanka to postpone municipal elections
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