Govt. nets Rs 251 million in tax revenue from  foreign teledramas since February

The state coffers had raked in Rs. 251 million since February this year by way of taxes on foreign teledramas and films telecast via local channels, Mass Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said.

Addressing the Ministerial Consultative Committee in Parliament last week (20), the Minister said that the government had resumed from February levying taxes on foreign teledramas and films aired by local TV channels that had been suspended following the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The Minister said that attention would be paid to further increase the amount of tax levied so as to preserve the local culture and local teledrama art and industry and to encourage local artists to engage in it.

Minister Rambukwella said that though the government spent Rs. 22 million a month on telecasting 16 hours of educational programmes for children during the COVID-19 pandemic, the turnover was only Rs. 4 million. The state television channel was fulfilling its responsibility for the sake of children.

Rupavahini had now become a loss-making institution and he hoped to develop it by preserving the national identity and introducing modern programmes, the Minister said.

 While expressing his wish to formalise the licensing process for TV channels and the registration process for all news websites currently in operation, the Minister also said that his Ministry was focusing on amending the Press Council Act to make the Media Board Act applicable to all media.

Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, MPs Chandima Weerakkody, Geetha Kumarasinghe, G. Karunakaran, S. Kajendran, Shanakiya Rasamanickam, Uddika Premarathna and Diana Gamage, Secretary to the Ministry of Mass Media Jagath P. Wijeweera, Director General of the Department of Government Information Mohan Samaranayake, Chairman of Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation Reginald Cooray, Chair of Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation Hudson Samarasinghe and Chairman of the Sri Lanka Press Council Mahinda Pathirana attended the meeting.