Shihar Aneez Courtesy  Reuters COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s new tax bill, demanded by the IMF as a condition for a third tranche of aid disbursed this week, will seek to ensure that all citizens pay direct taxes and cut indirect taxes, top finance ministry officials said on Friday. The new Inland Revenue Act, the island […]

By Ayshwarya Yapa Courtesy Adaderana Joint Opposition’s Parliamentarian Bandula Gunawardana stated that the third tranche of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) loan was granted to Sri Lanka as a result of the National Inland Revenue Act which was presented to the Parliament. He stated this at a press conference of the Joint Opposition today (19). Gunawardana further […]

Courtesy The Straits Times Both Singapore and Sri Lanka are committed to concluding negotiations on a free trade agreement before the end of the year, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in Colombo yesterday. “It will be a modern, comprehensive, high-quality, ambitious free trade agreement. It will demonstrate to the world that both of us are […]

Courtesy Reuters COLOMBO, July 18 (Reuters) – Sri Lankan shares closed lower on Tuesday, marking their fifth session of decline in six, although foreign investors continued to buy stocks. Domestic investors were concerned about a possible increase in interest rate, analysts said, after the International Monetary Fund said further monetary policy tightening in Sri Lanka […]

Courtesy reuters.com Further monetary tightening is desirable – IMF IMF completes delayed second review of $1.5 bln loan Sri Lanka awaits $167.2 mln third tranche of loan New Inland Revenue Act will support fiscal consolidation – IMF COLOMBO, July 18 (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that further monetary policy tightening in Sri […]

IMF July 17, 2017 IMF Executive Board completed the second review of Sri Lanka’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement, which enables the disbursement of about US$ 167.2 million. The new Inland Revenue Act will support fiscal consolidation, make the tax system more efficient and equitable, and generate resources for social and development programs. Further accumulating […]

World Bank STORY HIGHLIGHTS Sri Lanka’s performance in 2016 was broadly satisfactory and saw several highlights including the passing of a Right to Information Act. For Sri Lanka to sustain growth and create jobs in the medium term it will need to shift its growth model towards one more focused on private investment and tradable […]

By Niranjala Ariyawansha Courtesy Ceylon Today The Auditor General’s Department is set to reject the 2016 Annual Report of the Ministry of Finance, reliable sources told Ceylon Today. They added that the 2016 annual report of the Ministry of Finance was a balance sheet which had nominal and false figures in terms of debit and credit. […]

By Niranjala Ariyawansha Courtesy Ceylon Today The World Bank (WB) has warned the government that the US$ 100 million loan facility in the pipeline for release in September will be suspended unless the Audit Bill is tabled without further delay in Parliament and approved by it. Well-informed sources told this paper that this had come up […]

BY KAMAL MAHENDRE WEERARATNE Courtesy Ceylon Today The Presidential Commission inquiring into the Central Bank Bond issue, which took place during the tenure of former Governor Arjuna Mahendran, issued special orders yesterday (13) to the incumbent CBSL Governor and the Auditor General. The Auditor General was ordered to conduct a fresh audit query on the controversial […]

Capt Ranjith Weerasinghe  Trincomalee Tank farm with 100 tanks in 850 acres of land need not be given to any country or any foreign company. Whatever the agreement with LIOC, all the tanks must be taken back to the government possession immediately as the COPE finds that there is no legal agreement signed to lease […]

By Niranjala Ariyawansha Courtesy Ceylon Today Last week the government decided to import 300,000 metric tons of rice saying there is a shortage in requirement until September. However, the All Ceylon Farmers’ Federation (ACFF) refuted the government claim saying that 200,000 metric tons of rice that is needed for local requirement for the current year is […]

Courtesy The Island May 27, 2017, 7:19 pm Sri Lanka’s high-end luxury apartment developments may already be in trouble, according to at least two developers responding the Central Bank’s concern over a property bubble that could potentially undermine the entire economy. The private Iconic Developments, an apartment builder, said it was aware of at least […]

ආචාර්ය නාලක ගොඩහේවා පසුගියදා රූපවාහිනී නාලිකාවක පැවති දේශපාලන වාදයකදි, හම්බන්තොට පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ආචාර්ය හර්ෂද සිල්වා මහතාගෙන් ඉතා කාලෝචිත ප්‍රශ්නයක් ඇසුවේය. ඒ 2016 මහ බැංකු වාර්තාවේ සඳහන් වන රැකියා ආශ්‍රිත සංඛ්‍යාලේඛන වන නිරවද්‍යතාවය පිළිබඳවය. ප්‍රශ්ණය නිසා අන්දමන්ද වූ නියෝජ්‍ය ඇමති වරයා තම දුරකථනය ඔස්සේ මහබැංකු වාර්ථා පිරික්සා පැවසුවේ 2015 හා 2016 […]

by Sanath Nanayakkare Courtesy The Island Migrant worker remittances have mainly contributed to the surplus in the nation’s secondary income account which is earned by unskilled and housemaid categories, the Central Bank’s Annual Report 2016 reveals. CBSL Annual Report further notes that the surplus in the secondary income account mainly backed by these worker remittances have […]

 Courtesy The Daily Mirror The latest Central Bank (CB) report for the year 2016 clearly indicates that current economic crisis was not a result of the action of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa or his government, the Joint opposition claimed yesterday. Addressing a press briefing, MP Bandula Gunawardane said nearly two and half years has passed […]

The Rajpal Abeynayake Column Deplorables? Ghouls? Now, that comes close. Ingrates? Absolutely fits the bill, but is not a complete description. Vermin? Very close. These are the words that describe the current, dispensation, Prime Minister, President and all. Why should we say all this? Because words are important and they have to be used at […]

By Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Former Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka * Dubious adjustment made to 2015 Nominal GDP in order to push up 2016 Growth Rate from 2.2% to 4.4% * Dubious adjustment made to 2015 Nominal GDP in order to push up 2016 Growth Rate from 2.2% to 4.4% * GDP of 231 […]

by Sanath Nanayakkare Courtesy The Island May 9, 2017, 8:10 pm Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy said yesterday that proceeds from the potential long lease of Hambantota Port and proceeds from the sale or divestment of other non-strategic state assets would be pooled into a separate fund for liability management as foreign debt servicing commitments […]

By Professor Milton Rajaratne (Faculty of Management, University of Peradeniya) Courtesy The Island May 9, 2017, 8:28 pm In contrast to the Rajapaksa government, the Yahapalana government highlighted accelerated growth, one million new jobs, small government, social market policy, debt free economy, big push to industry, and infrastructure projects, and revitalization of the capital market etc. […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island May 9, 2017, 10:41 pm The national economy was deteriorating at an alarming rate as revealed by the latest Central Bank annual report, but the ruling coalition had presented three supplementary budgets amounting to staggering Rs 1.2 bn to acquire more super luxury vehicles for politicians and officials this year […]

By Umesh Moramudali and Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy Ceylon Today The proposed Economic and Technology Corporation Agreement (ETCA) with India has caused many a controversy, and in this interview with Ceylon Today Secretary of the Society of Information Technology Professionals, Lasantha Wickramasinghe, explains how ETCA will affect the country’s economy, and the reasons for opposing it. Following are […]

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today The Stock Market boomed into life, with the successful conclusion of the war, in May 2009. After stagnating for years, the rising activities were the barometric readings of the fast reviving economy. Yet, despite the massive development projects and investments taking place, the market was slowing by 2011. Investor confidence […]

Courtesy The Island April 29, 2017, 7:20 pm Sri Lanka will raise $2.5 billion through sovereign bonds and syndicated loans amid delays in securing the latest instalment of an International Monetary Fund bail out, the finance minister said Thursday. The island was hoping to issue about $1.5 billion in bonds by June, while nearly $1 […]

This quarter we have added 10 additional countries to the BSRI, taking advantage of the increasing depth and quality of available data on emerging market economies. The new members are the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Panama, Romania, Serbia, Sri Lanka and Uruguay. The BSRI now spans 89% of the JP Morgan EMBI Global […]

Professionals’ National Front පසුගියදා ජනමාධ්‍ය වාර්ථා කර තිබුන ආකාරයට අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා ඉන්දියාව බලා පිටත්ව යනුයේ ඉන්දීය අගමැති මෝදි මහතා හමුවී අපේ රටට තීරනාත්මකව බලපාන්නා වූ කාරනා කිහිපයකටම සිය අවසාන එකගතාවය පලකිරීමටය. ඒ අතර අපේ රටට  තීරනාත්මකව බල පාන්නාවූ එට්කා ගිවිසුම ද වේ. රට තුල මහත් ආන්දෝලනයකට තුඩුදුන් එට්කා ගිවිසුම පිළිබදව රටේ පිළිගත් වෘත්තිකයන්ගේ […]

Professional’s National Front   According to the recent press reports, PM Ranil Wickremasinge visited India in order to meet his Indian counterpart, Modi, and to give the final consent on several issues of critical importance to Sri Lanka.  Among such issues, one is the ETCA agreement. Throughout the recent past, Professionals National Front (PNF), a collection […]

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Foreign Exchange Bill which presented in Parliament by the government is similar to what former Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim envisaged, the joint opposition said today. It said the Bill would enable the Tamil Diaspora which was a repository of LTTE funds to invest in Sri Lanka without any […]

S. Talpahewa, Former Chairman/Managing Director, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. Courtesy The Island April 24, 2017, 10:03 pm Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka in his article, “Ranil’s worst betrayal: Giving Trincomalee to India”, implies that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has betrayed the country at least twice before, i. e. one a bad betrayal and two a worse betrayal. Whatever […]

Samantha Kumarasinghe (The writer is an entrepreneur and an industrialist.) It is now an openly-discussed incident that the former Central Bank Governor had misused his authority to allow a company that his son-in-law is a director/major shareholder of to make billions of rupees in undue profits at the expense of Government and other public funds. The subject […]