Sri Lanka

Ease of Doing Business in

Sri Lanka

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for Sri Lanka. The first table lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 185 economies) and the rankings by each topic. It also lists the economy's distance to frontier (DTF)** measure. The rest of the tables summarize the key indicators for each topic and benchmark against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

Economy Overview

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Economy Summary
Starting a Business
Dealing with Construction Permits
Getting Electricity
Registering Property
Getting Credit
Protecting Investors
Paying Taxes
Trading Across Borders
Enforcing Contracts
Resolving Insolvency
Region South Asia
Income Category Lower middle income
Population 20,869,000
GNI Per Capita (US$) 2,580
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
81 96 down 15

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
60.4 56.0 down 4.4
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 33 71 up 38
Dealing with Construction Permits 112 116 up 4
Getting Electricity 103 104 up 1
Registering Property 143 164 up 21
Getting Credit 70 80 up 10
Protecting Investors 49 46 up -3
Paying Taxes 169 175 up 6
Trading Across Borders 56 54 up -2
Enforcing Contracts 133 134 up 1
Resolving Insolvency 51 49 up -2

Economy Profile

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Paying Taxes

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This data shows the tax that a medium-size company must pay or withhold in a given year, as well as measures of the administrative burden in paying taxes. These measures include the number of payments an entrepreneur must make; the number of hours spent preparing, filing, and paying; and the percentage of their profits they must pay in taxes.

DB 2013 Rank 169 DB 2012 Rank 175 Change in Rank up6
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 43.9 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 21.1 Improvement in DTF** (% points) up22.8
Indicator Sri Lanka South Asia OECD

The total number of tax payments per year. The indicator reflects the total number of taxes and contributions paid, the method of payment, the frequency of payment and the number of agencies involved for a standardized case during the second year of operation.

View methodology Payments (number per year)
61 30 12

The time it takes to prepare, file and pay (or withhold) the corporate income tax, the value added tax and social security contributions (in hours per year).

View methodology Time (hours per year)
254 311 176

The amount of taxes on profits paid by the business as a percentage of commercial profits.

View methodology Profit tax (%)
1.6 17.1 15.2

The amount of taxes and mandatory contributions on labor paid by the business as a percentage of commercial profits.

View methodology Labor tax and contributions (%)
16.9 8.7 23.8

The amount of taxes and mandatory contributions paid by the business as a percentage of commercial profit that are not already included in the categories of profit or labor taxes.

View methodology Other taxes (%)
31.6 14.4 3.7

The total tax rate measures the amount of taxes and mandatory contributions payable by the business in the second year of operation, expressed as a share of commercial profits.

View methodology Total tax rate (% profit)
50.1 40.2 42.7
Tax or mandatory contribution Payments (number) Notes on Payments Time (hours) Statutory tax rate Tax base Total tax rate (% profit) Notes on TTR
Nation Building Tax 12 2% turnover 29.5
Social security contribution 12 96 12% gross salaries 13.5
Provident fund contribution 12 3% gross salaries 3.4
Property tax 1 35% annual property value 1.7
Corporate income tax 5 16 28% and a number of reduced rates (i.a. 10%) taxable profit 1.6
Tax on interest 0 withheld 10% interest income 0.3 included in other taxes
Tax on check transactions (stamp duty) 3 abolished as of April 2011 0% transaction value 0.2
Fuel tax 1 0.1
Municipal business tax 1 varies from LKR 250 to LKR 5,000 0.1
Vehicle tax 1 LKR 1,000 fixed fee depending on vehicle type 0
Value added tax (VAT) 12 142 12% value addition 0 not included
Stamp duty 1 various rates 0 small amount
Totals: 61 254 50.1

** The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the "frontier," which represents the highest performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies included in Doing Business since each indicator was included in Doing Business. An economy’s distance to frontier is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Read more...

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