The president of All Ceylon Bakery Owners’ Association N.K. will have to increase the prices of bakery products including bread from the first of October due to the increase in VAT and the need to pay the social security contribution tax. Jayawardene said.
He said that the VAT tax which was at eight percent has been increased to 15 percent, and the social security tax of two and a half percent has to be paid for production, sales and distribution activities.
The chairman said that the minimum price of a bundle of wheat flour has increased to twenty one thousand rupees and many bakeries in the country have closed down due to the shortage of wheat flour.
According to the current situation, bread can go up to 500 rupees, and the bread which used to be the food of the poor has now become the food of the luxury people, said Fasir Mohammad, the president of Nuwara Eliya district bakery owners.
The price of a pound of bread in the market is 190 rupees, while a pound of sandwich bread is sold at a price between 250 and 300 rupees.
He also said that the sale of bread has decreased by about fifty percent due to the increase in the price of bakery products including bread.
Kamal Perera, Chairman of the Small and Medium Scale Bakeries Association of the Southern Province, said that a large number of bakeries have been closed down, so that a large number of people supplying firewood have lost their jobs and a black market has been created in the market for bread flour.