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While many fear that reducing the VAT threshold to Rs 36 million will cause inflation, Sri Lanka's recent history with VAT threshold reductions have proven otherwise. Read the latest op-ed on VAT threshold reductions by Arutha Director Rehana Thowfeek.

The government’s Budget 2026 proposal to subsidise part of plantation worker wages raises questions on fairness, employer responsibility and accountability. Arutha’s latest brief analyses the impact and practicality of this proposal.

GoSL has reached an 'agreement in principle' with creditors to restructure a USD 175 million bond issued by Sri Lankan Airlines (SLA).

Signals a mismatch between announced policy and revenue projections. 

JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva’s claims on the timeline of Sri Lanka’s sovereign default its seeking support from the IMF is inaccurate.

Prices should have reduced by 15%, but in reality only reduced by 6%.

"If revenue from PAL, CESS and SCL are expected to grow every year until 2028, signaling a clear mismatch between the hashtag#budget2026 policy announcement and the numbers underpinning the budget".

The Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) has expressed support for the 2026 Budget’s proposed daily wage increase for plantation workers, while urging clear implementation and wider structural reforms.

“In some ways you want a boring budget,” says Yolani Fernando, an ex-Treasury staffer who now heads Arutha, a think tank. “On the fiscal side, this budget is boring. That's a good thing. It means there is policy continuity. The rest of it isn’t bold. You're staying on the track, going as fast as you were in the past. But that’s not going fast enough for seven percent growth.”

Is Budget 2026 bold enough for a 7% GDP growth target? Rehana Thowfeek analyses #Budget2026 from the lens of structural economic reforms covering tax administration, public sector, SOE and trade reforms.

අද අපි කතා කළේ නොවැම්බර් 7 වැනිදා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට නියමිත 2026 වර්ෂය සඳහා වන අයවැය ගැන. මේ ගැන කතා කරන්න Neon සහ Arutha team එකත් එක්ක එකතු වුණේ මහාචාර්ය රොහාන් සමරජීව.

Imported big onions are 13% cheaper and imported potatoes are 35% cheaper than locally produced big onions and potatoes despite the special commodity levy (SCL) on imports.

අය වැය ගැන Arutha Research විශ්ලේෂණය.

Executive Director of Arutha, Yolani Fernando spoke to Savithri Rodrigo on what to expect from this year’s budget. "People often see the reduction of subsidies as austerity, but, subsidies tend to be poorly targeted welfare.

අද අපේ කතාව රාජ්‍ය ව්‍යවසාය ගැන. මේ පොඩ් එකට රාජ්‍ය ව්‍යවසාය ප්‍රතිව්‍යුහගතකරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් සුවිශේෂී දැනුමක් තියෙන මංජුල ද සිල්වා සහභාගි වුණා.

Arutha's Rehana Thowfeek warns that Sri Lanka’s inward-looking trade policies have backfired. She urges tariff reform, fewer bureaucratic procedures, more digitisation, and better infrastructure to boost exports.

Neon සහ Arutha එකතුවෙලා අලුත් වැඩක් පටන් ගත්තා. ඒ තමයි ආර්ථිකේ ගැන කතා කරන පොඩ් එකක්. හොඳ නරක කියලා කියන්න.

In this issue, we unpack the Simplified VAT (SVAT) system and explore the new risk-based refund scheme.

The government’s plan to scrap the Simplified VAT (SVAT) system faces resistance from businesses from several industries.