204. Penal provisions relating to fraud &c

Official English translation. The Sinhala text prevails. Open the official Sinhala text, official PDF on documents.gov.lk

(1)

Any person who—

(a)

omits from a return made or furnished under this

Act any income, which he should have included in such return;

(b)

makes any false statement or entry in any return made or furnished under this Act;

(c)

makes a false statement in connection with a claim for a deduction or allowance under Chapter VII;

(d)

signs any statement or return made or furnished under this Act without reasonable grounds for believing the same to be true;

(e)

gives any false answer, whether verbally or in writing, to any question or request for information asked or made in accordance with the provisions of this Act;

(f)

prepares or maintains or authorises the preparation or maintenance, of any false books of account or other records, or falsifies or authorises the falsification of any books of account or records; or

(g)

makes use of any fraud, art or contrivance whatsoever, or authorizes the use of any such fraud, art or contrivance, and thereby evades or attempts to evade income tax, assists any other person to evade or to attempt to evade such tax, shall be guilty of an offence under this Act, and shall be liable on conviction after summary trial before a Magistrate, to fine consisting of—

(i)

a sum equal to the amount of tax so evaded or attempted to be evaded for which he, or as the case may be, the other person so assisted, is liable under this Act, for the year of assessment in respect of or during which the offence was committed; and

(ii)

a sum not exceeding ten thousand rupees or to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding six months, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

(2)

Every person who, being an employer for the purposes of Chapter XIV—

(a)

omits from a declaration made under paragraph (a)

or paragraph (d) or paragraph (e) of section 120 any remuneration or omits or understates in such declaration the amount of income tax deducted from such remuneration; or

(b)

gives a false certificate of income tax deduction under paragraph (b) or paragraph (c) of section 120, and thereby evades or attempts to evade income tax or assists any other person to evade or to attempt to evade such tax, shall be guilty of an offence under this Act, and shall be liable on conviction after summary trial before a Magistrate, to fine not exceeding ten thousand rupees or to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding six months or to both such fine and imprisonment.

(3)

The Commissioner-General may compound any offence under this section and may before judgement stay or compound any proceedings thereunder, subject to the recovery of an amount that is not less than one third of the fine that may be imposed under sub paragraphs (i) and (ii) of subsection (1). Such fine recovered shall be credited to the Consolidated

Fund.

Read on from s 205

Chapter XXX