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

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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Starting a Business

Info

The challenges of launching a business are shown below. Included are: the number of steps entrepreneurs can expect to go through to launch, the time it takes on average, and the cost and minimum capital required as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita.

DB 2013 Rank 33 DB 2012 Rank 71 Change in Rank up38
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 89.4 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 82.9 Improvement in DTF** (% points) up6.5
YearNew business densityNumber of new limited liability companies
2011 0.109,405
Indicator Sri Lanka South Asia OECD

The total number of procedures required to register a firm. A procedure is defined as any interaction of the company founders with external parties (for example, government agencies, lawyers, auditors or notaries).

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Procedures (number)
5 7 5

The total number of days required to register a firm. The measure captures the median duration that incorporation lawyers indicate is necessary to complete a procedure with minimum follow-up with government agencies and no extra payments.

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Time (days)
7 19 12

Cost is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita. It includes all official fees and fees for legal or professional services if such services are required by law.

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Cost (% of income per capita)
19.1 21.6 4.5

The amount that the entrepreneur needs to deposit in a bank or with a notary before registration and up to 3 months following incorporation and is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita.

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Paid-in Min. Capital (% of income per capita)
0.0 17.8 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Apply for approval name 2 days LKR 500
2 The company Secretary signs a consent 1 day There is no specific fee schedule company secretaries. The fees vary from firm to firm, and is generally based on a quarterly retainer
3 Register at the Companies Registry 2 days LKR 10000 as the registration fee for Form 1 and LKR 500+ for Forms 18 and 19 and the articles of association.
4 Register with tax authorities to obtain a TIN 1 day no charge
5 Register with Department of Labor to obtain EPF and ETF registration 1 day no charge

** 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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