President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has decided to remove the 14% income tax imposed on the profit earned by the gem and jewelry manufacturers and the 15% tax on gold imports, President’s Media Division said.

The oldest known Sri Lankan gem set in jewellery is a pink sapphire set in a ring found in Afghanistan and dating back 2500n years old, in fact some gems (before faceting and drilled to be beads) found in mines are so old they cannot be effectively dated (ref. Sri Lankan Legacy: A history of Sapphires – Jack Odgen). Sri Lankan gems have travelled the through the entirety of the ancient world – from adorning crowns in Germany to beautiful jewellery in the orient. This was mainly due to the beauty and the precision cutting techniques used in Sri Lankan gems.