Luxury : Tax, Health, & Technologists

October 2022, Time is difficult for everyone in, out and around Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is suffering from inflation, budget deficits, forex crisis etc. while the entire world is going through tough time due to numerous reasons which is not limited to the Russia’s war against Ukraine, OPEC+ reducing the daily output of crude oil by 2 million barrels to maintain keep soaring prices, supply chain issues related to climate change in Europe. The countries try to manage the costs by putting the burden on their only savior, the citizen of the country.?

Sri Lanka is no different to any of the other country in the world but most of us think otherwise. Sri Lanka has been hit by the most rapid inflation at the history of Sri Lanka which the Consumer Price Inflation has risen from average of 6 to 70+ just within 6 months. This has impacted the citizens of the country and the hardships are now going to worse with the proposed changes to the income tax by the government.?

You may be wondering why I have started a discussion on such a topic with the hardships faced by the world. Objective was to set the context where we are and what we are facing for a reader outside Sri Lanka, later in a day which the things may be different to today’s context.?

I am going to propose a different context to the current state. How to convert the situation to benefit of yours.

Let's start with the Luxury : Technologists

I would like to include myself in the category of Technologist as I was educated in the field of Computing, presently following cybersecurity and leading a team of technologists. We are a bunch of privileged citizens in the country who were least impacted by (w.r.t 22 million people) in the country. Many of my colleagues received the privilege of pegging their salaries to a foreign currency which day by day even the Sri Lanka Rupee values goes down, still manage to get more rupees against their nominal value in forex. Most of the others have given pay raises and or an allowance to cope with the inflation. ?

Further, most of them was given the option of working from anywhere (WFA) which led them work Infront of a computer screen accompany with a camera,?microphone and may be a ring light to assist them instead of the bunch of colleagues who were around to have a chit chat with and lose of opportunity on the spot assistances by them.?

We are now alone at home or somewhere, talking on a computer and most of all I have observed that we never see daylight or even night. It is also a controversial subject to discuss whether this WFA is good for Work Life Balance or not.?

Luxury : Health

Indeed, health is a luxury, most of us as human beings realize that it is only when we fall ill or anyone of our loved ones falls ill. We take the gift of nature to self-healing of our bodies for granted and pushing the boundaries of it by Junk Food, no sufficient sleep, no rest and even feeding us with synthetic things which is recommended by our favorite and popular celebrities.??

As technologists we are the worst at taking care of our bodies, it is evident if we go out and meet colleagues from the similar industry. Many of them are already out of shape (including me, who I was for almost last 2 decades), which was sad to see where many who were sporty looking are pre-covid are also met with the same fate.?

Luxury : Tax

Government of Sri Lanka has published a gazette including the above proposal which is again the highest tax hike of the century. The proposed scheme primarily makes considerable number of individuals who were not liable for income tax liable and significantly higher taxes for high mid income earners.?

My perspective is that this tax is majorly focused on certain segments who were benefiting from the sustained industry of ICT. As per the latest official records the population of ICT professionals are less than 200,000 which is 1% of the country's population and susceptible for migration due to make opportunities available in countries such as United States of America, Europe, Middle Eastern countries such as Dubai & Qatar, Australia, and New Zealand. ?

Let's look at the list of Possible Outcomes of Luxury : Tax

1. Government will collect significantly large amount of Paye Tax for couple of Months (since the companies are liable to deduct the taxes and submit to respective agencies)
2. The most of the personal who were tolerating the misdemeanors of government since they love to stay in the country would be shaken and look for options to migrate.?
3. The increase of migrations will drive the ICT sector crazy as it will be difficult to find experienced and quality talent in the country.?
4. The government will eventually lose the significant income that could have coming from these individuals.?
5. This will lead to further issue, which a certain amount of forex that could have been come into the market would get reduce and further outflow of forex due to migrates taking out the money by selling their movable assets. ?

Finally, the BRIGHT SIDE

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining, let’s look at the situation now. ?

1. Food items are expensive and scares?
2. Fuel is expensive and access is restricted (20 liters per vehicle per week)?
3. Going to be hit with about 24% – 36% income tax, so will need to spend less and careful?
4. Increasingly capable individuals are migrating, leaving their parents back home?
5. The political parties are back in action, manipulating the people by taking advantage of actions of government who does not know which party is ruling?
6. Foreign Countries which require talent is relaxing their immigration restrictions. I could name a lot.?

What MUST We Do ?

• Adopt a Healthy Life. It will be difficult to transform rapidly on your own. Get some support from an expert. I have consulted Professor Ranil Jayawardena , a nutritionist. It works for me as well as having an impact on the whole family. We have reduce the amount of refined floor and sugary products (Ex: biscuits, cakes, pastries, even bread, etc.)?
• Avoid Dinner Parties and Outings. This would be one of the major killers having an impact on health as well as the pocket. When you are out in the evenings, the amount you spend on food is high, mostly too much junk (even if we try as much as possible), spending on liquors for sure, it carves into the sleeping time which the body needs to fix itself, and your kids and / or spouse is alone at home which is a risk as there are increase of robberies in the neighborhoods.?

These two steps will reduce monthly expenses of your food by at least 20%, and you and your family will be healthier.?

• Explore the option of relocation out of the urban area. Most of us have the option of going back to the village, which brings a lot of benefits. It would be ideal for health in first place, as they are not polluted as the urban areas, fresh produce will be grown around you, you will also have the option of farming than what you have in your home in urban areas.

Let’s redefine the meaning of LUXURY, it should not be having accessibility to EXPENSIVE things in the world.?