Jun 22 (DM) A top level Indian govt delegation led by Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran will arrive in SL tomorrow on a special aircraft to assess the ground situation here in pursuit of further economic assistance. The delegation will stay in the country only for three hours and hold talks with both Prez and PM. The visit is consequent to the meetings held by SL envoy in New Delhi Milinda Moragoda with Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar and Finance Minister more..

Jun 22 (AD) Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera says that a payment of USD $34 million was made yesterday for a shipment of furnace oil, also known as HFO or heavy fuel oil. He said that the cargo will be unloaded today and will be used for power generation and industries. In a twitter message, the minister further said that they intend to maintain the current two-and-a-half hour daily power cuts as it is until the Norochcholai power plant is connected back to the grid. more..

Jun 22 (EN) Former Minister and now independent MP Wimal Weerawansa said the island nation must not overlook traditional ally Russia in its efforts to overcome a worsening economic crisis, particularly with regard to ongoing negotiations with the IMF. Weerawansa told parliament that he and a group of independent MPs held talks with Russian Ambassador to SL Yury Materiy on Tuesday. more..

Jun 22 (CT) Owing to the worsening fuel crisis, the Parliament Sittings this week have been limited to two days. Accordingly, Parliament will convene only today for this week, Committee on Parliamentary Business decided yesterday. This decision was taken despite the decision previously taken by the committee to convene the Parliament from 21 to 24 June. Meanwhile, due to the Opposition’s announcement that it will boycott this week’s Sittings, Independent MPs decided to move more..

Jun 22 (AD) A stock of ecstasy pills with an estimated street value of nearly Rs. 130 million was intercepted at the Central Mail Exchange in Colombo today. Customs Media Spokesman, Deputy Director of Customs (Legal Affairs) Sudaththa Silva said the contraband had been shipped from the Netherlands on March 04 via air freight. It had been sent to a fake address in Moratuwa. The consignment which contained a total of 13,640 ecstasy pills was seized by more..

Jun 22 (AD) PM Ranil Wickremesinghe says an interim budget for the year 2022 will be tabled in the parliament this August, in order to create the foundation for the path ahead. He also revealed that the budget for the year 2023 is expected to be presented in Nov 2022. “In addition to this, we will also present several new legislations in parliament that are necessary to strengthen our economy. We have already commenced discussions on these with all parties represented in parliament.” more..

Jun 22 (AD) Youth activists Rathindu Senaratne alias Ratta, Lahiru Weerasekara and five others have been remanded until July 01 by the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court. Social activist and YouTuber Rathindu Senaratne, the national organizer of Youth for Change Lahiru Weerasekara and actor Jagath Manuwarna, who were wanted over the incidents unrest in early June, had surrendered to Maradana Police this morning. On June 17, Colombo Fort Magistrate ordered police to arrest 9 more..

Jun 22 (EN) SL aims to reach a staff-level agreement with the IMF and also have a framework in place for debt restructuring by the end of July, PM Ranil Wickremesinghe said. Representatives of the financial and legal advisory firms Lazard and Clifford Chance are now in SL to assist with the debt restructuring framework, he said, while talks will continue over the next few days with an IMF delegation already in island nation. more..

Jun 22 (EN) SL will maintain 2.5 hour power cut until the 300 MW Norachcholai coal-fired unit power plant is back in operation, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said on Wednesday. “Plan to maintain the 2 and half hour power cut as it is until the Norochcholai power plant is connected back to the grid,” the minister tweeted on Wednesday. He also said US$ 34 million payment was paid on Tuesday for a cargo of heavy fuel oil/furnace oil, which was expected to be unloaded on Wed more..

Jun 22 (NR) Employees of the CEB have reportedly received a total of Rs.3,670 million in various allowances in the year 2020 and 2021 without the approval of the Cabinet. The matter was revealed during the meeting of COPE. Attention has been drawn to the decision to pay Rs.2,134.9 as allowances in the year 2021 and Rs. 1,544.4 million in the year 2020 without Cabinet approval. COPE Chairman MP Charitha Herath has noted that there should be accountability for the funds as more..

Jun 22 (BN) Sri Lanka was sued in the US by a bondholder after the South Asian nation defaulted on its debt for the first time in history while struggling to stop an economic meltdown. Hamilton Reserve Bank, which holds more than US$250 million of Sri Lanka's 5.875% Int'l Sovereign Bonds due July 25, filed the suit on Tuesday in a New York federal court seeking full payment of principal and interest. more..

Jun 22 (CT) A Gazette Extraordinary was issued by Prez Rajapaksa declaring all services connected to the supply of electricity, supply or distribution of petroleum products and fuel, as essential public services with effect from 20 June 2022. Further, all service, work or labour necessary or required to be done in connection with the maintenance, and the reception, care, feeding and treatment of patients in hospitals, nursing homes, dispensaries, and other similar institutions were also declared as more..

Jun 22 (CT) Cabinet of Ministers has approved the provision of railway reserve lands for cultivation on temporary basis. These lands will be used for agricultural practices and use on lease basis for a period of one year, prioritising the cultivators already engaged in cultivation in the relevant areas, residents near railway tracks and low-income earners. The proposal was presented by Minister of Highways. Total extent of the reserved lands belonging to the Department of SL Railways more..

Jun 22 (ANI) Former Sri Lankan cricketers took to social media to express their joy after a young SL team clinched its first series win over Australia at home in three decades. Charith Asalanka scored a match-winning ton, helping Sri Lanka make history by guiding them to a thrilling four-run win over Australia in the fourth ODI at Colombo and also to their first bilateral series win at home over the mighty Aussies in three decades. Former legendary cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya took to Twitter, more..

Jun 22 (CT) Condemning the arrests of 21 protesters on Monday on charges of obstructing the entrance to the Finance Ministry premises, the Black Caps Movement said they are considering filing a FR petition at the Supreme Court against the Police. Black Caps Movement Spokesperson Buddhi Karunaratne said they will also file a complaint at the Human Rights Commission of SL (HRCSL). “We strongly condemn the State crackdown on peaceful protesters on the birthday of Prez Rajapaksa, more..

Jun 22 (AD) It was revealed at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) that the demand for liquor has decreased by about 30% due to the recent increase in the price of liquor and the decrease in the income of the people of the country. This was revealed at a recent meeting of the COPF chaired by MP Anura Priyadarshana Yapa. Officials representing several institutions were contacted online to discuss plans to increase govt more..

Jun 22 (EN) Sri Lanka is exploring the possibility of conducting tea auctions in US dollars but it requires central bank approval, Plantations Minister Ramesh Pathirana told parliament amidst the worst currency crises in the history of the 72-year old monetary authority. “We have submitted this proposal to the (Sri Lanka) Tea Board. They have said the decision to transmit dollars down the chain rests with the exporters,” Minister Pathirana told parliament on June 22. more..

Jun 22 (CT) SL’s High Commissioner to India, Milinda Moragoda met the External Affairs Minister of India, Dr. S. Jaishankar on Monday to discuss the way forward with regard to Indian assistance in stabilising and recovering the ailing SL economy. At the outset, High Commissioner Moragoda briefed Minister Jaishankar on the present developments in SL and thanked him for his personal involvement in continuing the assistance that India has extended to SL in the form of credits for essential more..

Jun 22 (PTI) SL's economy has completely collapsed and it is facing a far more serious situation beyond the mere shortages of fuel, gas, electricity and food, PM Ranil Wickremesinghe warned on Wednesday, underscoring the urgency of arriving at an early agreement with the IMF to obtain an additional credit facility. SL has been facing the worst economic crisis since independence in 1948 which has prompted an acute shortage of more..

Jun 22 (AD) Fort Magistrate’s Court has granted fresh bail to SLPP MP Johnston Fernando over the incidents of violence at Galle Face and Kollupitiya on May 09. Fort Magistrate Thilina Gamage ordered to release under new bail conditions the former minister, who is named as the 28th accused in the case filed over the attacks on protesters at GotaGoGama in Galle Face and MinaGoGama near Temple Trees. MP was ordered released on 2 personal bonds of Rs. 10 m each more..

Jun 22 (EN) SL’s central bank has tightened border transactions reporting with a new system in the latest control on the people as the country suffers the worst currency crisis in the history of the intermediate regime monetary authority. International Transactions Reporting System will be implemented from June 21. A new bureaucracy called the ITRS Monitoring Unit, has been set up at the central bank. “These reporting requirements are exercised based on the powers conferred by more..

Jun 23 (DM) It is a publicly acknowledged fact that Prez Rajapaksa, the PM and the Ministers in particular and SLPP govt in general should be held responsible for having failed and that too, miserably to adopt timely counter-measures to preempt the current political and economic crises engulfing SL resulting in farmers being left without fertilizer; tens of thousands of consumers compelled to languish in kilometre-long queues to obtain their quota of petrol, diesel, kerosene and domestic gas more..

Jun 23 (DM) Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the worst President we’ve had. He is the worst leader, counting all presidents, prime ministers, ministers, chairpersons of local govt authorities and maranaadhara samithi. He is the worst Sri Lankan ever. Let’s assume. Let’s assume that as the all-powerful Executive Prez, all ills are attributable to him. Let’s assume that although this implies that he can lay claim to all positives, he had nothing to do with effectively handling Covid-19 situation, more..

Jun 23 (TM) Sri Lanka’s students have been facing challenge upon challenge since early 2020, starting with repeated Covid-related lockdowns, during which school education more or less fell apart. Hot on the heels of the Covid recovery came the economic crisis, resulting in ongoing food and fuel shortages, once again hampering children’s education. Beset as they are on all fronts, with learning continually disrupted, more..

Jun 23 (CT) Interim PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, on his sixth term, has just completed a month in office. Nobody expects the newly anointed PM to come charging on a white steed like a modern-day Sir Galahad to save the country from economic bankruptcy. From the start, there is a lot of skepticism about his success as PM as the fully empowered Prez Rajapaksa is riding on his back. Many protesters see him as a proxy of Gotabaya, who refuses to resign. more..

Jun 23 (TM) The current economic crisis is an opportunity to not only learn how to survive in dire living conditions, but also to adopt innovative ways to deal with problems. One of the major decisions the authorities have taken with regard to using new technology – firstly to reduce the spread of Covid-19, and now to save fuel and reduce other costs – was encouraging people to work from home. Online education was also a topic of discussion during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, regarding more..

Jun 23 (TM) In a context where SL has very limited and not-so-promising options to face the possible food crisis and the worsening economic crisis, preparing the country to minimise the impacts of the same and save resources seems to be one of the best available options. One measure that the Govt took in this regard was introducing a four-day work week for public sector employees with Fridays being declared an off-day for those more..

Jun 23 (CT) Amidst a US dollar shortage crippling the economy and causing social unrest, remittances, SL’s largest foreign exchange (FX) earner since 2009, saw earnings fall for the twelfth consecutive month to last month. The reason for this is CBSL instituting a controlled exchange rate (ER) regime since 28 April 2021, complemented by artificially inflating the rupee value in the ER to control cost-push inflationary pressure and show govt’s external debt in rupee terms of being at a lower value. more..

Jun 23 (ST) Have some trade unions, not all, become a harbinger of bad news? This is what a colleague asked me the other day when there was outrage over reports of high salaries of a few top officials of the CEB who are powerful union leaders. No one would grumble if officials are paid handsomely for a hard day’s work (that’s an example followed by Singapore) but only if it is within the means of such state organisations to adequately compensate their workers. more..

Jun 23 (Island) Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision in favour of Dhammika Perera anent a petition against his appointment as a National List (NL) MP of the SLPP, reminds us of a serious discrepancy between a section of the Parliamentary Election Act No 1 of 1981 and some provisions of the Constitution, governing the NL appointments. Strangely, this incongruity has gone unaddressed all these years, and outsiders continue to be catapulted to Parliament via the NL, some notable cases more..

Jun 23 (Island) SL’s rugby is set to benefit immensely with many mercantile establishments tying up with the country’s men’s and women’s rugby teams which are preparing to contest the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. All establishments backing the island’s rugby sevens teams in their capacity as sponsors had encouraging words for the players and the sport when their representatives spoke at a media briefing hosted by Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) yesterday more..

Jun 23 (CI) Is this it? Have they arrived? Is this the new Sri Lanka? The future? Bright? Blinding as the sun? Energy. Remember that? Batters who will whisk the team out of a hole. Bowlers who will make an anthill of a target seem like a forbidding Himalayan peak. Fielders who don't comically clang into each while circling under a gently descending catch. It has been long enough. Too long. Years since more..

Jun 23 (TM) Fuel queues are now an eminent daily curse that everyone who owns a two-, three-, or four-wheeler has to face. This is in addition to the agriculture and fisheries sector that is also severely affected. It has become the common enemy of all these segments of consumer groups, and fuel is an absolute necessity for daily life of all citizens alike. It is a fact that there is a shortage of supply for many valid reasons, but it is critical that we manage the supply & distribution of fuel to all user groups more..

Jun 23 (ST) The new Minister of Sports, Roshan Ranasinghe, raising concerns and the present status of the Diyagama Track and Field Stadium, has hinted that the facility could be transferred to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), owing the heavy cost involved in maintaining the country’s second synthetic track and field sports complex. Minister had made the desire in giving charge the authority to SLC, after making an observation tour earlier this week. Issuing a statement, Secretary to Ministry of Sports, more..

Jun 23 (FT) SL’s Melanie Janine Kanaka, FCMA, CGMA became the first-ever Asian woman elected as the President of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the world’s largest professional body of management accountants and Co-Chair of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the Association), which represents the combined membership of CIMA and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). more..