Arutha in the News

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.

"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.

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.

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.

Sri Lanka may be a small player in global trade, but the recent US tariff hike is a big wake-up call.     "Sri Lanka obviously cannot flatten its trade deficit of over US$2 billion by simply buying more from the US. Further negotiations are possible, but a beneficial bilateral deal seems far from the horizon. Transshipping is not feasible. A 30% tariff looms. Repercussions are significant."

සෞඛ්‍යය, අධ්‍යාපනය, පිරිසිදු කිරීම, යටිතල පහසුකම් වැනි සේවා වැනි බොහෝ සේවාවන් ප්‍රමාණයක් තීරණය කරන ගාමක බලවේගයක් වන්නේ මේ පළාත් පාලන ආයතනයි. එනමුත් මේ ක්‍රියාවලියේදී ඡන්දය ලබා දීමට අමතරව ඔබට සම්බන්ධ විය හැකි ආකාරය පිළිබදව ඔබ දන්නවද? ඒ අයවැය සම්පාදනය කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලිය තුලිනි.