Several tax amendments that were proposed in the 2014  budget will come into effect from Wednesday.

This includes revisions to the VAT taxation as well as the Nation Building Tax and tax on telecommunication.

On November 22, subsequent to the budget speech made by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, amendments to the special commodity levy and cess tax came into effect.

As a result of this tax revision,  there was a significant price increase in  sugar, dhal, canned fish and several import goods.

Meanwhile, it was also proposed in the budget to fix the tax fre threshold applicable for VAT on supermarket scale retail traders at Rs. 250 million rupees from Rs. 500 million rupees per quarter, netting small scale supermarkets.

Economic consultants say that this taxation revision will also affect both wholesale and retail traders.

The supermarket tax will affect shops in villages as well and the prices of goods will increase. The price of bakery products will also increase as a result of the tax revision. The nation building tax and VAT will also be applied to select medical goods starting Wednesday.

Meanwhile, based on the 2014 budget, the majority of the goods that were free of the special commodity levy will be slapped with a tax.

Accordingly, 12 percent will have to be paid as VAT if goods are imported at a cost of more than Rs. 250 million rupees within a period of three months. Furthermore, the telecommunication levy, which stood at 20 percent, will be increased to 25 per cent starting from Wednesday.

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