Order to Mendis Company to immediately settle the 5800 million rupees in defaulted VAT payments.

The Colombo Magistrate's Court has ordered the directors of W. M. Mendis and Company to immediately pay the defaulted Value Added Tax (VAT) amount of Rs. 5800 million without any excuse.

 This case was called before Colombo Additional Magistrate Oshada Migara Maharachchi, where Mr. Arjun Aloysius, a director of the said company named as a defendant, appeared before the court.

Here, the lawyer representing the defendant company stated that a portion of the outstanding tax amounts has already been settled. However, under the current circumstances, as the company's assets have been foreclosed by banks and are under prohibition, they have not yet been able to find the documents to prove that those tax amounts were paid, he pointed out to the court.

Mr. Dinesh Perera, the lawyer appearing for the Commissioner General of Inland Revenue, strongly objected to this, stating that if the tax amounts have been paid, it is mandatory to submit the relevant official documents to the court, and claiming that documents are missing is not an acceptable excuse. Furthermore, since the period for paying the relevant tax amounts has long expired and the defaulted amount is very large, he emphasized that no further grace period could be granted to the defendants.

Considering the submissions made, the Additional Magistrate, taking into account the period during which the defendant party defaulted on tax payments, ordered them to promptly settle the outstanding amounts. Furthermore, the Additional Magistrate ordered the defendants to make a definitive statement on the next court date regarding whether these tax amounts would be paid again without delay, and adjourned the relevant trial until September 30th.