Feb 9 (ANI) In a joint operation, the Indian Coast Guard along with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Chennai, seized a gold consignment of 17.74 Kg worth approximately Rs 10.5 crore from Mandapam seashore in Tamil Nadu while the consignment was being smuggled from Sri Lanka by sea route. According to an official statement on Thursday, based on intelligence input from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Chennai, Indian Coast Guard Station Mandapam more..

Feb 9 (DM) Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe has taken a torch which is burning from both side by trying to fully implement the 13th Amendment, Former Prez Maithripala Sirisena said. He said he wondered why Ranil Wickremesinghe was trying to implement this controversial 13A when the country was facing serious issues. Mr. Sirisena said none of the former Presidents such as JR Jayawardane who introduced the 13A, Ranasinghe Premadasa, D.B. Wijetunge, Chandrika Bandaranaike, Mahinda more..

Feb 9 (TM) Healthcare assistants of the National Hospital of SL (NHSL) in Colombo engaged in a protest outside the hospital premises yesterday demanding the removal of the hospital’s Deputy Director Dr. Rukshan Bellana over alleged false accusations levelled by the latter, claiming that hospital minor staffers were addicted to illicit drugs such as crystal methamphetamine (ice) and had even resorted to stealing from patients. more..

Feb 9 (Island) Dr. Ruchitha Perera, FCIM, Chartered Marketer (UK), has been elected to the Board of Directors of The Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK, for a 3-year term, beginning Dec 2022. The appointment was announced at its AGM held recently, at Moor Hall, UK. The Board of Directors consists of 10 members, of which eight represent the UK, and Europe, and two represent the rest of the world. Ruchitha was elected as per the electoral results from a ballot of all voting members more..

Feb 9 (NW) The Colombo Magistrate yesterday discharged the former President of the Sri Lanka Jamaathe Islami, Usthaz Rasheed Hajjul Akbar from all charges filed against him pertaining to the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. During a recent hearing of his Fundamental Rights application at the Supreme Court, the Attorney General’s Department informed the court that it had advised the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) to withdraw all the charges filed against Akbar. more..

Feb 9 (OMFIF) Sri Lanka has been running fiscal deficits for decades and has recorded a primary budget surplus only four times since its independence in 1948. This severe lack of fiscal discipline has been made possible by debt financing and monetary financing of government expenditure. This has had many consequences for the economy, not least that SL has had consistently higher inflation than other countries in the region. The Central Bank of SL has independence to an extent. more..

Feb 9 (DM) SriLankan Airlines is to renew its commercial operations to China in the first week of April 2023, with a thrice weekly service each to Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou as China reopens its borders. China was a leading source market for inbound tourism to SL and one of SriLankan’s premier leisure traveller segments before the pandemic, and SriLankan is positioning for a strong comeback in China upon its return. SriLankan will launch flights to Shanghai on 3 April. more..

Feb 9 (TM) With another partial payment of Rs. 500 million paid for the 12th coal shipment yesterday (8), CEB is still to settle a sum of Rs. 1.5 billion for the same, along with another Rs. 6.4 billion amounting to 70%, which is the balance payments required for the 13th and 14th coal shipments due to arrive today (9) and tomorrow (10), respectively. Lanka Coal Company Chairman Shehan Sumanasekara stated that the payments more..

Feb 9 (DM) Claiming that the Public Utilities Commission of SL (PUCSL) has granted special electricity tariff reduction to Housing Apartment Complexes than normal domestic units, Minister Kanchana Wijesekara said today that electricity could be provided to normal domestic units at concessionary rates if the special relief granted to Housing Apartments was withdrawn. Minister told Parliament that the eletricity tariff charged from Housing Apartment complexes were 50% more..

Feb 9 (AD) Election Commission of SL today released the lists of names of the candidates from each political party and independent group contesting the upcoming 2023 LG election. Accordingly, the commission has issued a QR code to access the list of candidates contesting for this year’s election and the relevant political parties or independent groups they are contesting under. Meanwhile, a total of 676,873 postal vote applications have been received by more..

Feb 9 (AD) The govt has decided to submit the draft bill of the proposed new National Security Act, which is expected to replace the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval expeditiously. Minister of Justice, Prisons Affairs and Constitutional Reforms, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe has directed the relevant officials to complete the drafting of the bill as soon as possible for this purpose. more..

Feb 9 (DM) A group of 14 govt MPs have submitted a letter to the Speaker of Parliament requesting him to appoint a Select Committee to investigate into incidents of infringement of privileges of MPs by the Election Commission. The letter cites the appointment of the Elections Commission consisting of five members on Dec 3, 2020, and their responsibility towards Parliament under Article 1048(3) of the Constitution. The letter also mentioned that the Commission has failed to more..

Feb 9 (EN) Cabinet of ministers gave the approval to amend the Employees trust Fund act in order to provide health insurance for private sector workers, Minister Bandula Gunawardana said. “In the 2023 budget speech Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe proposed to introduce a health insurance to the private sector similar to the state sector’s Agrahara health insurance,” he told reporters. Accordingly, instruction will be given to the legal draftsman to prepare a bill to amend the ETF act enabling more..

Feb 10 (CT) Thank you presiding officer for the opportunity to say a few words on the adjournment debate. On the Throne speech made by the Prez yesterday in this house, I am saying throne speech because in the English version of the printed document of his speech it actually says Throne speech. Sinhala and the Tamil don’t have it but the English says Throne speech. Knowing the president as I do, he probably drafted his speech in English first, and he thought he was actually more..

Feb 10 (DM) Last week, PM Dinesh Gunawardena ordered the authorities to officially rename Slave Island as Kompagngna Veediya. Though already known as Kompanna Veediya, a formal change was considered appropriate as Sri Lanka is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its independence from colonial rule. The term Slave Island was a relic of Portuguese rule (1597 to 1658) when the area housed black African slaves called Kaffirs whom the Portuguese brought from Mozambique. more..

Feb 10 (SO) Prez has instructed the State apparatus to reduce its expenditure in light of the current crisis as the Govt attempts to increase its revenue through taxation. Here representatives for four political parties presented their views on four common questions asked on State revenue, expenditure and foreign debt. Q : 1. If your party was currently in power what action would it take to increase State revenue? more..

Feb 10 (DM) Any reforms the government makes to put its economy in order will be painful for the people. Right now people are concerned about how their salaries would be taxed in the future. Apart from that Prez Wickremesinghe said during his speech at the ceremonial opening of parliament on Wednesday that he would not be soft on implementing new tax policies because there could be a loss for the govt if he didn’t grab this opportunity. more..

Feb 10 (GV) The scorching heat beats down on the field. A herd of cows shelter under the trees that are scattered across the field. I went in search of Mr. Selvarathinam. His wife told me that he had come this way along with his cows, but I could not see him anywhere. I too looked for a tree, sat in its shade and looked idly around. After some time, I saw an old gentleman accompanied by a young man walking my way. I soon realized that this was the person I was looking for. more..

Feb 10 (TM) As the country is facing an unprecedented economic crisis, the recently introduced tax revisions on progressive taxation have resulted in excessive tax cuts which are aimed at the salaries of middle- and high-income earners. The tax hikes have brought about the risk of the relocation of middle-class professionals and skilled workers to Australia, Canada, and several other European countries. more..

Feb 10 (TM) In SL, religious leaders, especially Buddhist clergy, have played a key role in many nationally decisive steps, and have been assigned a certain reputation and a power in the political and social spheres. However, over the years, that power seems to have waned considerably, while the extent to which the exercise of that power is justifiable has been questioned. One of the reasons for such a situation is the religious leaders' unjustifiable involvement in politics as religious leaders more..

Feb 10 (Island) The spectre of a protracted labour struggle looms over the country. By staging a joint protest, on Wednesday, warring professionals sent a strong message to the govt. They have said in no uncertain terms that they will not give up their struggle until income tax is brought down to an affordable level. The govt remains intransigent, having effected some minor changes to the new tax regime. Trade unions have rejected them out of hand; threatened to resume their protests soon. more..

Feb 10 (CT) A heated situation arose between the Police and Buddhist monks during a protest, against the full implementation of the 13th Amendment, which was held at Polduwa Junction near the Parliament entry road on Wednesday (8). The protest coincided with the beginning of the Fourth Session of the 9th Parliament, where Prez Ranil Wickremesinghe was making what is traditionally called Throne Speech or presenting the Government’s policy statement to the House. more..

Feb 10 (Island) Who or what is striking SL? Except highly incensed trade unions joined by civil organisations and civil society. They have reason to be angered and we Ordinaries are a-feared. No earthquake or intrusive army has struck or invaded us. Then who is attacking us? Our own govt which will go vote with the Prez on any country-injurious plan purely for retaining their parliamentary seats and positions of power. We watch on TV the utter suffering of people in Turkey and Syria more..

Feb 10 (CI) Chamari Athapaththu doesn't mind carrying the hopes of Sri Lanka women's cricket almost on her own. As their best-known, most experienced and most successful T20I player, she understands the buck starts and stops with her, and has made it her mission to inspire future generations to build her country's sporting future. "I know I have big responsibility and pressure but I love that pressure," Athapaththu said more..

Feb 10 (ST) Sporadic protests were held yesterday (4) in Colombo and outstation areas, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of Independence. One of the main protests was held by the IUSF. IUSF Convener Wasantha Mudalige said the protest started near Sri J'pura Uni. He said their initial plan was to march towards Colombo city. However, the protest which began at around 2 pm, with a strength of around 1000 uni students, remained at Wijerama junction in Col 7, after the Police blocked the road more..

Feb 10 (ST) Unplanned vegetable cultivation has once again led to a large harvest and drop in prices. And much goes to waste as a result. The manager of a dedicated economic centre, a chairman of a merchants association, as well as farmers, say there is no way of knowing how much needs to be grown despite the many state institutes that do market surveys. Farmers complain that there is no national plan for crop cultivation. The chairman of the All Island Dedicated Economic Centres and more..

Feb 10 (FT) The leading blue-chip conglomerate, Aitken Spence yesterday reported a cumulative Profit Before Tax (PBT) of Rs. 10.3 billion for the nine months ended 31 Dec 2022, which was a significant growth of 213.7% over last year. The highest contribution to the Group’s profit before tax was from the Maritime and Freight Logistics sector which accounted for 68.4% of Group PBT. Group’s earnings (inclusive of equity accounted investees) before interest expenses, tax, depreciation, more..

Feb 10 (FT) Hemas Holdings PLC said yesterday it has delivered a commendable performance in the first nine months of the financial year 2023. Notwithstanding the volatile economic conditions, the Group posted a cumulative revenue of Rs. 81.7 billion, a 41.6% growth over last year. Despite the 51.5% growth in Group operating profits, reported earnings for the period remained flat at Rs. 3.2 billion amidst the escalating interest rates. Hemas said while the prolonged effects of more..

Feb 10 (FT) SJB charged that the Govt is yet to present a plan on how it will tackle the issue of restructuring bilateral debt with China, insisting the regime together with the Prez must ensure implementation of the Constitution. SJB MP Dr. Harsha De Silva, cast doubts on some of the projections made by the Prez in his policy speech in Parliament on Wednesday, adding that neither the Prez-led Govt nor the leftist parties have more..

Feb 10 (FT) Continuing its journey of doing good for SL, Nestlé Lanka is furthering its investment in the country despite volatilities, with its strong focus on sustainability. The company will be investing over Rs. 1 billion in a biomass boiler project at its state-of-the-art factory in Kurunegala, which will contribute significantly towards the company’s endeavour of achieving net zero emissions across the value chain by 2050. Planned to begin mid-2023, this investment project will be conducted under more..

Feb 10 (AAP) President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday called for promoting greater cooperation between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the fields of trade, economy and education. He said the two brotherly countries enjoyed cordial relations that needed to be further expanded for their mutual benefit. He underscored the need for increased cooperation in the areas of higher education, academia, and research to promote mutual understanding between the people of both countries. more..

Feb 10 (TM) The public consultation held on Wednesday by the Public Utilities Commission of SL (PUCSL) in view of the 66.2% increase in electricity tariffs proposed by CEB saw many questioning the accuracy of the said proposal, viewing the economic contraction to be a byproduct of the same. These observations were shared by PUCSL Chairman Janaka Ratnayake following the conclusion of the public consultation. more..

Feb 10 (FT) American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) launched its inaugural CxO Forum titled UNLOCKING 2023, on 31 Jan at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo. AmCham SL President Lakshan Madurasinghe noted: “Influence, intelligence and resources to challenge the norms, to innovate, to adapt and to thrive through unprecedented turbulence and volatility has been the cornerstone of our membership services these past years, especially the last few, and we are proud of more..

Feb 10 (DN) Opener Nishan Madushka the in-form batsman hit an unbeaten 84 while Kamindu Mendis scored 67 to get a 129-run lead and all-rounder Chamika Kaunaratne returned fine figures of 4 for 84 as SL ‘A’ finished day three on a commanding note against England Lions in their second four-day unofficial Test match played at Galle Int'l Cricket Stadium yesterday. It was a nice batting track at Galle while England Lions scored 405 in their first innings in reply to SL A’s 1st innings 332. more..

Feb 10 (Island) Cargills (Ceylon) opened its new centralised distribution centre on 8th Feb 2023, marking another key milestone of its steadfast journey. The centre has been built with an investment of Rs. 4 billion in a 28-acre land in Katana, signifying a symbol of the company’s continuous commitment to enhance its supply chain logistics and improve productivity and efficiency to drive economic activity at the grassroots. Over the past 40 years Cargills has evolved to become more..