Factors Influencing Tax Evasion: The Perception of Sri Lankan Medium-Sized Taxpayers

This quantitative study investigates the taxpayers’ perceptions of tax evasion. The tax evasion determinants were considered as institutional, economic, socio-psychological, and political and legal factors. Using a 5-point Likert scale, this study looked at 436 medium-sized entrepreneurs in the Colombo district to determine the most influential determinant of tax evasion. The survey responses were gathered through a questionnaire. The results show that socio-psychological and economic factors have a significant and negative impact on medium-sized taxpayers’ income tax evasion behaviour while institutional and political and legal factors have a weak association on tax evasion. The findings show that tax evasion is influenced by socio-psychological factors such as fairness of the tax system, moral obligation, and social influences, as well as economic factors such as tax rates, penalties, audit, and taxpayer privileges. The results highlight that in the Sri Lankan context, socio-psychosocial factors are regarded as a very crucial determinant that impacts individual income tax evasion. In addition, it offers insight into the influence of gender of business owner on tax evasion behaviour. Results suggest that medium-sized taxpayers’ tax evasion behaviors could be changed if tax policy decisions contemplate more on taxpayer’s psychological condition and affordability to pay tax. Distributing the tax burden to a greater number of taxpayers will help to increase tax compliance.     DOI: http://doi.org/10.31357/fhss/vjhss.v09i01.0

Development of a novel evidence-based automated powered mobility device competency assessment

This paper describes the outcomes of a clinical study to assess the validity of a stand-alone sensor package and algorithms to aid the assessment by an occupational therapist (OT) whether a person has the capacity to safely and effectively operate a powered mobility device such as a wheelchair in their daily activities. The proposed solution consists of a suite of sensors capable of inferring navigational characteristics from the platform it is attached to (e.g. trajectories, map of surroundings, speeds, distance to doors, etc). Such information presents occupational therapists with the ability to augment their own observations and assessments with correlated, quantitative, evidence-based data acquired with the sensor array. Furthermore, OT reviews can take place at the therapist's discretion as the data from the trials is logged. Results from a clinical evaluation of the proposed approach, taking as reference the commonly-used Power-Mobility Indoor Driving Assessment (PIDA) assessment, were conducted at the premises of the Prince of Wales (PoW) Hospital in Sydney by four users, showing consistency with the OT scores, and setting the scene to a larger study with wider targeted participation. © 2013 IEEE

Customer Behavior Analysis for Social Media

It is essential for a business organization to get the customer feedback in order to grow as a company. Business organizations are collecting customer feedback using various methods. But the question is ‘are they efficient and effective?' In the current context, there is more of a customer oriented market and all the business organizations are competing to achieve customer delight through their products and services. Social Media plays a huge role in one's life. Customers tend to reveal their true opinion about certain brands on social media rather than giving routine feedback to the producers or sellers. Because of this reason, it is identified that social media can be used as a tool to analyze customer behavior. If relevant data can be gathered from the customers' social media feeds and if these data are analyzed properly, a clear idea to the companies what customers really think about their brand can be provided

Impact of Compliance with Principles on Board of Directors and Corporate Performance: Empirical Evidence from Sri Lankan Listed Companies

Board of directors in corporate governance is conceptualized as the perceived ability of a firm to constrain and direct corporate power so that it efficiently creates economic value and equitably distributes economic wealth. Accordingly, this study examines the relationship between the level of compliance with the principles on corporate governance related to the board of directors and corporate performance of listed firms in Sri Lanka using secondary data related to 133 listed companies from 2009 to 2016. This study constructed Board Index related to dimensions (principles): Chairmanship, Nomination Committee, Audit Committee, Remuneration Committee, and Re-election of directors, Company Secretary, Role of the Board, Board Meetings and Board Independence. This study employs panel regression model to examine the relationship between the Board Index (BI) and their relationship with corporate performance and performed with Hausman test for random and fixed effects. The findings indicated that the compliance with these principles are positively related to the financial performance and negatively related with market performance. Thus, this study provides empirical support for the agency perspective in the context of compliance requirements of board of directors leading to higher corporate performance. Insights of this research are offered to listed firms by the compliance of corporate governance principles have the potential to improve company performance. KEYWORDS: Agency Perspective, Audit Committee, Corporate Governance, Nomination committee, Remuneration Committee

Bacterial pathogens causing urinary tract infections in children and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns in a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka

Introduction and Objectives: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common infections in childhood. The objective of our study was to ascertain the commonest organisms causing UTI in children and their ABST patterns. The study was carried out in a Teaching Hospital in Sri Lanka.Methods: Data was collected from children who were confirmed to have UTI by positive urine culture (&gt;105 bacteria/ml urine) between July-December 2015. The clinical presentation, presence of predisposing factors and reports of urine culture and the antibiotic susceptibility patterns were analysed.Results: Coliforms were found to be the commonest organism followed by Enterococcus spp. Nitrofurantoin showed the highest sensitivity of the tested antibiotics against both coliforms and the enterococcus groups. However the sensitivity to most of the antibiotics showed a reduction from previously recorded values in studies done in Sri Lanka.Conclusions: The authors emphasize the need for regular revision of the list of organisms causing UTI and the antibiotic sensitivity to improve the treatment of childhood UTI with the ideal antibiotic. </p

Sustainable farming with native rocks: the transition without revolution.

The development process which humanity passed through favored a series of conquests, reflected in the better quality of life and longevity, however, it also provoked upsets and severe transformation in the environment and in the human food security. Such process is driving the ecosystems to be homogeneous, and, therefore,the nutrients� supply, via nourishment. To change this panorama, the present work discusses the gains of incorporating the stonemeal technique as a strategic alternative to give back the essential fertile characteristics to the soils. This technology has the function of facilitating the rejuvenation of the soils and increasing the availability of the necessary nutrients to the full development of the plants which is a basic input for the proliferation of life in all its dimensions

Groundwater quality and antibiotic resistance of coliform bacteria in Wilgamuwa, an area of Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) in Sri Lanka

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Estimating the risk of mortality attributable to recent late HIV diagnosis following admission to the intensive care unit: A single-centre observational cohort study

OBJECTIVES: Despite improvements in survival of people with HIV admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), late diagnosis continues to contribute to in-ICU mortality. We quantify the population attributable fraction (PAF) of in-ICU mortality for recent late diagnosis among people with HIV admitted to a London ICU. METHODS: Index ICU admissions among people with HIV were considered from 2000 to 2019. Recent late diagnosis was a CD4 T-cell count < 350 cells/μL and/or AIDS-defining illness at/within 6 months prior to ICU admission. Univariate comparisons were conducted using Wilcoxon rank-sum/Cochran-Armitage/χ2 /Fisher's exact tests. We used Poisson regression (robust standard errors) to estimate unadjusted/adjusted (age, sex, calendar year of ICU admission) risk ratios (RRs) and regression standardization to estimate the PAF. RESULTS: In all, 207 index admissions were included [median (interquartile range) age: 46 (38-53) years; 72% male]; 58 (28%) had a recent late diagnosis, all of whom had a CD4 count < 350 cells/μL, and 95% had advanced HIV (CD4 count < 200 cells/μL and/or AIDS at admission) as compared with 57% of those who did not have a recent late diagnosis (p < 0.001). In-ICU mortality was 27% (55/207); 38% versus 22% in those who did and did not have a recent late diagnosis, respectively (p = 0.02). Recent late diagnosis was independently associated with increased in-ICU mortality risk (adjusted RR = 1.75) (95% confidence interval: 1.05-2.91), with 17.08% (16.04-18.12%) of deaths being attributable to this. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for improved public health efforts focused on HIV testing and reporting of late diagnosis to better understand potentially missed opportunities for earlier HIV diagnosis in healthcare services