Sri Lanka president declares a state of emergency for second time amid economic crisis

Colombo: Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Friday declared a state of emergency giving security forces sweeping powers for the second time in five weeks to deal with escalating anti-government protests. A spokesman for the president said he invoked the tough laws to “ensure public order” after trade unions staged a nationwide strike Friday demanding his resignation over a worsening economic crisis. Sri Lanka lost around 1 million taxpayers in the last two years after the Gotabaya Rajapaksa regime announced sweeping tax cuts in 2019 in its bid to spur growth, Finance Minister Ali Sabry revealed earlier, as the island nation faced an unprecedented economic crisis. These tax cuts were introduced in November 2019 in keeping with President Rajapaksa’s election pledges. The Cabinet had slashed the value added tax (VAT) to 8 per cent from 15 per cent and also abolished seven other taxes. These sweeping tax cuts led to a credit rating downgrade in the following year, prompting Sri Lanka to get alienated in international financial markets. Sabry told Parliament on Thursday that Sri Lanka lost about 500,000 taxpayers each in 2020 and 2021 after the ill-timed tax cuts were delivered. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.