Petition against levying withholding tax on Sri Lanka’s national team cricketers

Sri Lanka’s ODI captain Charith Asalanka and Test captain Dhananjaya de Silva have filed a petition in the Court of Appeal seeking a writ of certiorari to quash the decision of the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) to levy Withholding Tax on the players of the Sri Lanka national cricket team by considering them as employees of the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

The petition was taken up today for the confirmation of facts before a bench comprising the Acting Chairman of the Appeals Court, Justice Mohamed Lafar Tahir and Justice K.P. Fernando.

The court ordered that the petition be called on March 28 for the confirmation of the facts.

The Commissioner General of Inland Revenue, its Deputy Commissioner, the Chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), its Executive Committee members, the Auditor General and several others have been named as respondents in the petition.

The petitioners state that after Sri Lanka awarded Test cricket status in 1983, written contracts were signed by the national cricket team players with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board after winning the World Cup in 1996.

The petitioners claim that the Executive Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket, which met on January 17, decided to classify the players playing at the national level under contracts with Sri Lanka Cricket as employees working under contract basis of that institution.

The petitioners, who point out that the said decision is completely against the law, stated that national level players are not members of the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) or the Employees’ Trust Fund (ETF) and that they have no such rights.

The petitioners state that they have sought legal advice from legal experts in this regard and that they have received legal advice that they are independent service providers to Sri Lanka Cricket and not its employees.

Under that situation, the Inland Revenue Department has decided to levy Withholding Tax on them considering them as employees of Sri Lanka Cricket, and as a result, the petitioners point out that this has caused severe prejudice towards national level cricketers.

Accordingly, the petitioners have requested the Court of Appeal to issue writ orders to quash the decision of the Sri Lanka cricket board to classify national level players as SLC employees and the decision of the Inland Revenue Department to levy Withholding Tax on them.

In addition, the petitioners have further requested that an interim injunction be issued to prevent the implementation of the decision of the Inland Revenue Department until this petition is heard and a final decision is announced.