By Prof. Nimal Gunatilleke Courtesy The Island December 1, 2019, 9:10 pm After the release of the ‘Executive Version’ of the Millennium Challenge Compact, between the United States of America (acting through the Millennium Challenge Corporation) and the Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (acting through the Ministry of Finance), and its accompanying ‘Constraints Analysis’ document […]

Courtesy Hiru News Advisor to the Prime Minister on Economic Affairs Ajith Nivard Cabraal speaking to our news team said the government will make fresh engagements with the International Monetary Fund to implement a growth-oriented economic programme. Commenting on the possible impact of tax reductions on state coffers, he said the government would target a […]

Sri Lanka Economy CT CLSA Government co-media spokesperson Dr. Bandula Gunawardena stated that certain changes have been made to taxes during the first Cabinet meeting today. Changes as below  Reduce VAT from current 15% to 8% w.e.f 01 Dec 2019 – VAT on Financial services will remain at 15%  2% NBT removed w.e.f […]

Courtesy Hiru News All forms of tax on information and communication technology have been waived. This was announced by joint cabinet spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardene this afternoon. He further stated that three segments of tax, 6%, 12 % and 18 %, have been reduced for income tax as well.

Courtesy Ada Derana The Cabinet has given its approval to remove the Nation Building Tax (NBT), Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Tax and Withholding Tax on interests, the Co-Cabinet Spokesperson Bandula Gunawardena said today. He mentioned this during the first press briefing to announce the decisions of the new government’s Cabinet of Ministers, held at […]

Courtesy Reuters COLOMBO, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Sri Lankan shares ended higher on Wednesday, helped by gains in beverage and banking shares, while the rupee ended firmer on hopes of tax cuts by the new government. ** After the market closed, Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardana said the government has decided to reduce value-added tax to […]

By Kalani Kumarasinghe Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, November 20 (Daily Mirror): Over the past weeks, women’s rights were heavily debated as front-runners of the Sri Lankan presidential campaigns pursued the female vote like never before. Sri Lanka had its Presidential election on November 16. The promises the candidates made included free childcare. The ruling party candidate Sajith […]

Sandun A Jayasekera Courtesy The Daily Mirror A senior Finance Ministry source said yesterday the Central Bank did not release the report on the forensic audit on the Central Bank bond scam because the report puts the blame for the bond scam on the doorstep of the Central Bank. He said the CB need not […]

Courtesy The Island The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) yesterday urged the UNP government not to go ahead with controversial Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement without fully examining the proposed pact. The following is the full text of the letter issued by BASL President Kalinga Indatissa, PC: “The Bar Association of Sri Lanka views […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, Oct 30 – China is helping Sri Lanka come out of a debt trap” and has led the island towards development by constructing ports, roads and water conservancy projects that improve people’s livelihood, Chinese Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan, quoted by China’s state owned Xinhua news agency said. Speaking at a dialogue on China-Sri […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත් ඉහළ ව්‍යාපාරිකයාගේ සිට හඳුන්කූරු නිෂ්පාදකයා දක්වා සියළු ව්‍යාපාර අද වන විට කඩා වැටී ඇති බව හිටපු මහබැංකු අධිපති අජිත් නිවාඞ් කබ්රාල් පවසනවා. ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති ධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂගේ නායකත්වයෙන් යුතු නව ආණ්ඩුවක් යටතේ ජනතාවගෙන් අය කෙරෙන බදු සියයට 20කින් අඩු කරන බවයි පොළොන්නරුව ප්‍රදේශයේ අද පැවති වියත්මඟ සම්මන්ත්‍රණයට […]

Moderated by Rishini Weeraratne Courtesy The Daily Mirror Former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal responded to a few questions posed to him by viewers during a live interview conducted on Facebook. Here, he spoke about the growth of the economy during his tenure, where it has gone wrong, allegations on bond issues and the […]

වජිර ලියනගේ උපුටා ගැන්ම  අරුණ පුවත් ලංකාවේ වැඩිම මිලට අලෙවි වන මල කුමක්දැයි ඔබත් ඇසුවහොත් ඔබ ඕකිඩ්, ගාඩිනියා, ලැවැන්ඩර් ආදී විවිධ මල් වර්ග සිහියට නගා ගනු ඇත්තේ නිතැතිනි. එහෙත් ලංකාවේ මිල අධිකම මල ඔය කියන එක කෙහෙල්මලක් නොවේ. ලංකාවේ මිල අධිකම මල සාදික්කා මලය. එය පිටකොටුවේ කුළු බඩු තොග අලෙවිකරුවන් අතර තොග මිල කිලෝවක් රුපියල් […]

Courtesy Business Today South Asian countries like Pakistan (94), Bangladesh (88), Sri Lanka (66) and Nepal (73) have fared better than India in terms of high-levels of hunger India has ranked 102nd among 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI). In 2018, India had ranked 55 among 77 nations listed in the GHI. South […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The government is in a move to issue a ten year US 500 billion (600 billion yen) Samurai Bond package to repay foreign loans under the provisions of the Responsible Management Liability Act passed in 2003. Mizuho Securities Company Ltd., SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., and Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. […]

By Sumanasiri Liyanage Courtesy Ceylon Today In the last two months or so, when the country was edging towards the Presidential Election, Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, maybe hoping for United National Party nominations, had begun to talk on the economic performance of his Government. Having followed his speeches in different fora, one may identify the […]

Courtesy LBO Oct 01, 2019 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa says that the yahapalana government has not built anything of lasting value or anything that would generate an income from the staggering 26 billion US dollars that they took in the form of foreign currency commercial loans since January 2015. Releasing a […]

Economy COLOMBO, Sept 25 (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday it has cut its forecast for Sri Lanka’s 2019 economic growth to 2.7% from 3.5% as a political crisis in the last year and Easter attacks weigh on the tourism industry and broader business activity. The IMF forecast is lower than […]

By PK Krishnakumar Courtesy The Economic Times This happened at a time when pepper prices in Sri Lanka crashed to $2,800 from $3,800 per tonne, while the MIP in India was $7,000 per tonne (Rs 500 per kg).  ndia’s spice industry has raised concerns over increase in black pepper imports from Sri Lanka since August […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත් රාජ්‍ය සේවකයන්ගේ වැටුප් ගෙවීමට මුදල් නොමැතිවීම හේතුවෙන් ආණ්ඩුව මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරය හරහා විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිසමෙන් රුපියල් බිලියන 10 ක ණයක් ඉල්ලා ඇති බව පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී විජේදාස රාජපක්ෂ පවසනවා. මන්ත්‍රීවරයා මෙම අදහස් පළ කළේ කොළඹ අද පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදීයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත් මහ බැංකුවේ අධිපතිවරයාට ඇති කාර්යභාරය අගමැතිවරයා විසින් සිදුකිරීම හේතුවෙන් මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා මේ වනවිට අසරණ තත්ත්වයට පත්ව ඇති බව හිටපු මහ බැංකු අධිපති අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල් මහතා පවසනවා අද පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී ඔහු මේ බව සඳහන් කළා.

ශ්‍යාම් නුවන් ගනේවත්ත  උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින මහ බැංකුව වූ කලී රටේ මුල්‍ය ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කරන මුළු මහත් ආර්ථිකයටම දැවැන්ත බලපෑමක් කළ හැකි ආයතනයකි. එය ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ මූල්‍ය පද්ධතියේ කේන්ද්‍රීය ස්ථානය උසුලනු ලබන ආයතනයයි. 1950 වර්ෂයේ දී 1949 අංක 58 දරන මුදල් නීති පනත මගින් අර්ධ ස්වාධීන ආයතනයක් ලෙස මහ බැංකුව පිහිටුවා ඇති අතර සාමාජිකයන් පස් […]

By Jayati Ghosh Courtesy Ceylon Today The process of selecting the International Monetary Fund’s next Managing Director must change. In particular, the tradition of choosing a European for the post – based on an unfair and anachronistic ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ reached with the United States when the institution was established 75 years ago – needs to […]

Courtesy London South East COLOMBO, Aug 13 (Reuters) – Sri Lankan shares closed marginally higher on Tuesday, easing from early gains of 1.2%, after the main opposition party named a hardline former defence chief as presidential candidate, seeking to capitalise on public clamour for a decisive leader. ** The rupee ended slightly weaker on importer […]

Courtesy ABC News Shocks from deadly suicide bombings on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka are reverberating throughout its economy in the worst crisis since the South Asian island nation’s civil war ended in 2009. The blasts that killed more than 250 people were blamed on Islamic extremists. They have devastated Sri Lanka’s vital tourism industry, […]

Courtesy Empire Files Abby Martin sits down with Peter Phillips, former director of Project Censored and professor of Political Sociology at Sonoma State University. His new book Giants: The Global Power Elite” details the 17 transnational investment firms which control over $50 trillion in wealth—and how they are kept in power by their activists, facilitators […]

By Siri Hettige, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Colombo – Courtesy The Island There has been considerable public discussion in recent months about the need to find a meaningful and real alternative to the existing two mainstream political formations in Sri Lanka. But, the people in the country are yet to see a clear […]

Courtesy Adaderana The World Bank will increase assistance to Sri Lanka under three of its new operations, the World Bank Vice President for South Asia Region, Hartwig Schafer said today (18). The three World Bank operations include assisting the agriculture sector faced with climatic vagaries, irrigation, renewable energy, climate resilience operations and renovation of tanks […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, July 12 (Daily FT) – The Central Bank yesterday said it has revised growth down to 3% from 4% earlier in the year, but kept policy rates unchanged on moderate inflation, international rate cuts, and expectations of lending rates declining in the coming weeks, to boost economic expansion. Central Bank Governor Dr. […]

COLOMBO, July 4 (Xinhua) — The World Bank has changed Sri Lanka’s classification from a lower-middle income country to an upper-middle income country under its latest country income classifications for the 2020 fiscal year, local media reports said here Thursday. The World Bank in a statement said it had classified the world’s economies into four […]