Jul 4 (TM) Ministry of Education has designated the week from today (4) to Friday (8) as a holiday week for all schools across the island, with plans to cover the number of school days lost by students during the upcoming holiday seasons. An official of the Ministry of Education stated that the Ministry has decided to designate the week from today to Friday as a holiday week for all schools islandwide. more..

Jul 4 (DM) Following the elephant-cab accident at Thalawa in Anuradhapura, injuring three persons including veteran artiste Jackson Anthony, the elephant has not reportedly been seriously injured due to the accident, a wildlife official confirmed today. According to initial reports and eyewitnesses, the elephant had fled to the nearby jungle following the accident, and eyewitnesses have not noticed any difference in the elephant's walking style, so we hope that elephant's injuries are not serious, more..

Jul 4 (FT) SJB and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa said it would take at least five years to undo the damage done to the Sri Lankan economy over the past three years, and requested the public not to be misled by claims that immediate solutions could be found by some parties. “This is the bitter truth, and sometimes people do not like to hear the truth. I humbly request the public to make informed decisions and not be misled as they were during 2019 and 2020,” Premadasa stated. more..

Jul 4 (AD) 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was presented to establish political stability in the country which is requested by most of the international agencies assisting SL, Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe says. His views came in the backdrop where SLFP chairman Maithripala Sirisena criticized the 22nd constitutional amendment as an attempt to strengthen the powers of incumbent Prez Rajapaksa until the end of his tenure. more..

Jul 4 (SLN) A search operation carried out by the Navy in the eastern seas this morning (3) led to the seizure of a local multiday fishing trawler carrying 51 persons, who are suspected to be on an illegal migration attempt to a foreign country via sea. Navy conducts regular operations covering the sea and coastal areas around the island with the aim of suppressing illegal migration and other forms of illegal activities. In the search operation mounted in the seas off Trincomalee this morning, more..

Jul 4 (DN) Veteran actor Jackson Anthony, who was admitted to the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital with injuries after his vehicle collided with a wild elephant at Thalawa, A'pura on Saturday was transferred to the ICU of the Colombo National Hospital yesterday. Jackson Anthony and two others were injured when the vehicle they were travelling collided with a wild elephant crossing the road in Thalawa, Moragoda. Jackson Anthony had been driving the car & his brother had been seated more..

Jul 4 (FT) Private sector had borrowed only Rs. 2 billion in May, a sharp plunge in comparison to recent months. As per latest data of the Central Bank, credit to the private sector by May stood at Rs. 7,754 billion as against Rs. 7,752 billion in April, reflecting a mere Rs. 2 billion increase. In contrast, January and February saw borrowings of over Rs. 30 billion each. Analysts attributed the sharp plunge in borrowings in May to the economic crisis as well as hike in interest rates. more..

Jul 4 (Island) Opposition political parties, trade unions and civil organisations are planning to hold a protest in Colombo on 9 July and continue their agitation until Prez Rajapaksa steps down. SJB MP Ranjith Madduma Bandara said they were having talks with other parties. “The representatives of Galle Face Aragalaya have met us and we pledged our solidarity with them. It is the demand of all the people. Our party has solicited the support of many civil & religious organisations in this protest,” more..

Jul 4 (TM) Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said that five fuel shipments are confirmed to arrive in the country this month, while the Ministry is awaiting confirmation about two other shipments from Malaysia, with the CPC total petrol stocks remaining desperately low at 4,064 metric tonnes (MT). “CPC currently has 5,274 MT of diesel and will receive 7,500 MT more from the LIOC tomorrow (4) for $ 11 million. more..

Jul 4 (MFA) Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor G.L. Peiris met with the Ambassador of China, Qi Zhenhong, on 30 June, 2022 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Following the exchange of pleasantries, Minister Peiris appreciated China’s continued assistance to Sri Lanka. The Foreign Minister also apprised the Ambassador of the current situation in the country and the shortage of fuel, food and pharmaceutical equipment which have adversely affected the economy of Sri Lanka. more..

Jul 4 (CT) Rupee or domestic credit by SL’s banking and monetary sectors, to Govt of SL (GoSL) and to public corporations, continued to overshadow credit to the private sector for the tenth consecutive month to May2022, a phenomenon last seen 33 years ago in 1989. In this connection, domestic credit to the GoSL together with public corporations amounted to Rs 8,249.1 billion in May 2022; while credit to the private sector lagged behind at Rs 7,754.5 billion, showing that the gap between credit to GoSL more..

Jul 4 (DM) Banks have virtually stopped lending to private borrowers as interest rates climbed to restrictive territory and the economic conditions turned from bad to worse prompting them to tighten credit conditions to contain any more damage to their asset quality. Meanwhile, the demand for credit also fell off a cliff after banks quickly followed suit when the CB raised key rates by a whopping 700 basis points aimed at tightening credit conditions & thereby to stem demand-driven inflation more..

Jul 4 (DM) Operating on a zero-fuel schedule as the country’s jet fuel reserves have run out, the national carrier SriLankan Airlines is bracing for potential flight cancellations until 18th of this month. Issuing an internal memo to its employees last week, SriLankan management announced that the airline ran out of available jet fuel stocks on June 29th, and as a result scheduled flight operations are likely to be impacted from 1st to 18th of this month. CAA on June 28th issued a notice advising airlines to more..

Jul 4 (DM) Driven by the jet fuel shortage and fund repatriation issues as a result of the foreign exchange crisis, airlines have halved air seat capacity to Sri Lanka by 53% over the past couple of months presenting another challenge for the country’s struggling tourism industry. Airlines were forced to undertake these reductions in frequencies while a few airlines have pulled out of the country. Air seat capacity to SL declined by 27.6% more..

Jul 4 (FT) Aseni, whiz kid in economics, and her grandpa, Sarath Mahatthaya, are in discussion on how money cost can deviate from the true cost of an activity and its implications on the personal as well as the country economic life. The issue has received their focus because of the long queues for essential items, especially for fuel, milk food, and cooking gas, in Sri Lanka where people pay a low money cost but spend hugely in terms of the sacrifice of their real resources. The following is the conversation. more..

Jul 4 (FT) In his address to the nation on 11 May, the Prez committed to enact a Constitutional Amendment that would restore the substance of the 19th Amendment (my translation from the video record, because this speech is missing from the President’s websites). By this time, he had seen the steadfastness of the Aragalaya and the nationwide support they had. It is reasonable to assume that former Minister Sabry had briefed him that there would be no immediate support from IMF more..

Jul 4 (AD) The prevailing windy condition is expected to enhance further today in the western and southern sea areas and in the southern half of the island due to the active Southwest Monsoon condition. Showers will occur at times in Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts. Several spells of showers will occur in Western and North-Western provinces and in Galle and Matara districts. Showers or thundershowers may occur at a few places more..

Jul 4 (DM) An internal investigation had been initiated by SL Army in connection with the incident at a petrol shed at Yaggahapitiya in Kurunegala where an Army officer attacked a civilian went viral on social media. A video showing an Army officer kicking a man at a petrol shed was shared on social media and it was reported that the officer who attacked the civilian is a Lt. Colonel of the SL Army. Army Spokesman said Army had begun an internal investigation into the incident. more..

Jul 4 (EN) State-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has lost 628 billion rupees in the first four months of 2022, driven by un-hedged dollar loans it was forced to take over the years whenever the central bank printed money to create forex shortages. It now had a negative net worth of over a trillion rupees. CPC had borrowed over US$ 3 billion from two state banks after importing oil on credit without buying dollars in the market more..

Jul 4 (DM) A set of documents which were held in court custody as the production items of the D.A. Rajapaksa Museum case originally filed against Prez Rajapaksa and six others were yesterday ordered to be released to Land Reclamation & Development Corporation (LRDC) by Colombo Permanent High Court-at-Bar. Colombo Permanent Trial-at-Bar ordered to release these documents reserving LRDC's rights to re-submit them if necessary. At a previous occasion, more..

Jul 4 (CI) A career-best 4-wicket burst from Renuka Singh followed by clinical half-centuries from Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma helped India dominate the second ODI for a 10-wicket win and gain an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Chasing 174, India made sure they learnt their lessons from their first outing when they scrapped home to a four-wicket victory chasing 172. Mandhana and Shafali looked much assured with their strokes as the duo piled on more..

Jul 4 (FT) Tourist arrivals in June increased by 8.8% to 32,865 from the lowest 30,207 in May despite the ongoing economic crisis, whilst surpassing the 400,000 mark in the first half. The slight uptick in arrivals was largely influenced by the Australia tour of SL which commenced in early June. Arrivals in the first six months amounted to 411,377 (as against 17,000 in COVID-hit 1H of 2021), a welcome more..

Jul 4 (EN) Lanka IOC, a unit of the Indian Oil Corporation, has discontinued a token system introduced for fuel pumping which proved ineffective eight days after it was launched. “It started off well but we received many complaints on all the fronts, probably because the effectiveness of the system could not be ensured. So we were left with no option but to discontinue it,” Manoj Gupta, MD of LIOC said. “One has to be flexible and adaptable to the system so it was more of a pain rather than more..

Jul 4 (DM) It is essential to determine whether Russian crude oil is in line with the specifications of CPC, Minister Susil Premajayantha told Parliament. “Many, including MPs are questioning as to why SL won’t go ahead and procure fuel from Russia, but one has to determine whether the refined products from Russia are in line with CPC specifications,” he said. Also he said the issue pertaining to recent grounding of Aeroflot Aircraft is expected to be sought soon. more..

Jul 4 (FT) SL’s first accelerator program tailored for the country’s female founders, AccelerateHER, recently held its finale event Demo Day. The program’s six recent graduates presented their products and services and pitched for the opportunity to receive investment and support from partners in SL, USA and other parts of the world in effectively taking their business towards global markets. The event last week featured female founders in industries that included tourism, more..

Jul 4 (DM) Dept of Wildlife Conservation had today deployed two teams to track down the wild elephant involved in the accident at Moragoda in Thalawa in which veteran artiste Jackson Anthony and two others were seriously injured. A senior official of the Wildlife Conservation Department in Anuradhapura said that the jumbo had fallen twice on the double cab in the impact and that it would have sustained serious injuries. He said the two teams comprising officers from Thalawa and A'pura more..

Jul 4 (EN) SL’s tax revenues grew 27% from a year ago to 543.6 billion rupees up to April 2022 partly helped by one-off retrospective tax, official data showed while inflation also started to gallop which tends to boost nominal turnover based taxes. By April SL’s 12-month inflation had hit 29.8% but many traded goods had risen higher. First installment of a retrospective tax had brought 59.6 billion rupees. Income tax revenue was up 170% to 149.2 b more..

Jul 4 (Island) SLPP lawmaker Dr. Nalaka Godahewa says the govt has not been able to bring talks with the IMF to a successful conclusion for want of a cohesive action plan to reduce expenditure and increase revenue. He said so when The Island sought the former mercantile executive’s response to the current status of govt negotiations with the IMF. “The issue at hand is that we haven’t been able to convince the IMF of our plans to address the daunting task. more..

Jul 4 (AD) Prez Rajapaksa has issued an Extraordinary Gazette notification declaring all services connected to the supply of electricity, the supply and distribution of fuel, and hospitals as essential services. It stated that all services connected to the supply of electricity, the supply or distribution of petroleum products and fuel and all service, work or labour, of any description whatsoever, necessary or required to be done in connection with the maintenance & reception, more..

Jul 4 (FT) As SL grapples with the impact of COVID-19 and the current economic crisis on education, UNICEF and Dhammika and Priscilla Perera Foundation (DP Foundation) are partnering to help some of the most vulnerable children access quality education through digital learning platforms in 100 schools in the country. Project will enable children in the Uva, Central, Northern & Eastern Provinces, to access and use tech-based tools and content to improve their knowledge of more..

Jul 4 (DM) Olympic Sprinter Yupun Abeykoon who set a new men's 100m record in South Asia, with a time of 9.96 secs at the Resisprint Int'l Competition in Switzerland said he was proud to have won this at a time when Sri Lanka was facing a crisis and was receiving negative publicity. "I have worked hard and am proud that this victory brought some positivity for my country. I know we are facing a difficult situation at this moment and my win is dedicated to all my fellow Sri Lankans," he said. more..

Jul 4 (Island) Amidst economic chaos caused by the disruption of fuel and LP gas supplies as well as severe shortage of food and medicine, the Bar Association of SL (BASL) has filed a motion requesting the Supreme Court to take up cases pertaining to alleged violation of fundamental rights due to the deprival of basic requirements of the people. A senior spokesperson for the BASL said that they would be represented by more..

Jul 4 (NR) Australian High Commissioner to SL David Holly says his country will support SL’s economic, social, and maritime development. Australian HC called on Prez Rajapaksa this afternoon at the President’s House in Colombo, Fort. David Holly mentioned that Australia is well aware of the economic hardships SL is facing. PMD issuing a statement said the highest amount of humanitarian aid given to SL by a single nation, which included $50 million, was donated by Australia. more..

Jul 4 (TASS) Sri Lanka does not impose any sanctions on Russia and maintains normal relationship with Moscow, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe said in an exclusive interview with TASS on Monday. PM answered in the negative when asked whether the sanctions imposed by the West against Moscow have affected relations between the two countries. "No, we have not imposed sanctions on Russia and we have normal relationship with Russia," he said. more..

Jul 4 (TM) Govt has recorded gross domestic borrowings of Rs 1.6 trillion in the first four months of 2022, with over Rs. 1 trillion raised through Treasury Bonds, according to the mid-year fiscal report by the Ministry of Finance. 60% of the domestic borrowing (over Rs. 1 trillion) was raised from Treasury bonds, 31% (Rs. 518.2 billion) from Treasury bills, and 4.4% (Rs 73.8 billion) through provisional advances from the central bank, more..