Sri Lanka’ Dipped Products net up on forex gains

ECONOMYNEXT – Profits at Sri Lanka’s Dipped Products Plc, which has interests in rubber products and plantations grew 43 percent in the March 2022 quarter from a year ago to 2.3 billion rupees as collapsing currency brought forex gains, interim accounts showed.

The Hayleys group firm, which has factories in Sri Lanka and Thailand, reported earnings of 3.95 rupees a share. In the year to March the group reported earnings of 8.99 rupees up 4.2 percent from a year ago on total profits of 6.4 billion rupees.

The interim reports showed that Dipped Products (DPL) group profit before tax for the March quarter improved to 3.3 billion rupees from 2.3 billion in the same period the previous year.

Gross profits fell 35 percent to 2.3 billion rupees, as revenues dropped by 9 percent to 12.5 billion rupees in the quarter and cost of sales went up one percent to 10.1 billion rupees.

The Government in its Budget for 2022 proposed a one-time tax, referred to as a surcharge tax, at the rate of 25 percent to be imposed on companies that have earned a taxable income over 2 billion rupees for the year of assessment 2020/2021.

The firm said, the estimated amount for the tax is 321.6 million rupees.

“The tax is imposed by the Surcharge Tax Act No. 14 of 2022 which was passed by the Parliament of Sri Lanka on 7th April 2022. As the law imposing the surcharge tax was enacted after the reporting period end, the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2022 do not reflect the tax liability that would arise in consequence…” the firm said in its interim report.

(Colombo/ June 4/2022)