CEYFFA C-Suite Forum 2015: Roadmap for forward march

Keynote speaker N. R Gajendran

The Ceylon Freights and Logistics Association organised a C-Suite Forum to enhance the knowledge and professionalism of participating companies through the sharing of knowledge and exchange of ideas among the stakeholders of the industry. The event was open for CEOs, COOs, CFOs and senior business executives of companies to participate in the forum and share their knowledge.

Various topics such as Opportunities in Transport and Logistics Industry, Government Policy, Companies Act Compliance and Commitments, Strategic Perspectives on Business Decisions and Challenges and Innovative Logistics were covered. The keynote speaker for the evening GAJMA & Co. Senior Partner N.R. Gajendran addressed the gathering on tax compliance of a service provider. 

In his speech he mentioned that freight forwarders have been dealt specifically when considering taxes and that they have been recognised. “I must congratulate you not because tax to GDP has been dropping, not because the tax base is shrinking, not because evasion in this country is not been tackled adequately or not because compliance rates are going down. Compliance means on its own; first and foremost good governance has become the order of the day. I don’t think there’s any political party in the world with the word good governance. 

“So that’s going to have some meaning because you have the Liberation front, National people’s front. Technology and social media will bring good governance. Compliance will go up as a result of good governance and therefore the accountability will also go up. Another reason why compliance will go up is because of the tax to GDP ratio which has been spoken in many political forums. The tax to GDP ratio was 11.6% in 2013. If a country wants macroeconomic stability and if their fundamentals have to be strong, then the minimum tax to GDP ratio should be 30% and macroeconomic stability should be around 25% but advanced countries have around 30%.  “In 2014 it was 12.8% and then it ended up in 10.8% and now in 2015 it is at 11.8%. If you see the revenue we projected to have a sum of Rs. 1.4 trillion in 2014 now we are hoping for Rs. 5 million in 2015. My role here today is to explain about compliance, the reasons for non-compliance, benefit of compliance and challenges of tax compliance. If you are to comply you must know the law. They say all tax-payers are ignorant but tax-officers are innocent, so this is where the ignorant interacts with the innocent.  “Then you have the agents, the tax consultants coming in to protect the innocent. Why don’t people comply? Service sector is the easiest sector in which you can comply. Sometimes you have no trace. Service means there’s no trace. However, there are many challenges for compliance because compliance is taken as a tool and not an object.” 

The forum was also followed by panel discussions on topics such as ‘growing beyond horizons’ and ‘challenges and innovative logistics’ where several stakeholders shared their knowledge on how the industry could be enhanced in different avenues. The event was followed by a cocktail in the presence of politician and economist Dr. Harsha De Silva.