BY IDAH Z. PSWARAYI-RIDDIHOUGH  Courtesy The World Bank Many Sri Lankans understand the potential benefits of lowering trade costs and making their country more competitive in the global economy. The majority, however, fear increased competition, the unfair advantage of the private sector from abroad and limited skills and innovation to compete. Yet, Sri Lanka’s aspirations cannot be […]

By Dr. Nalaka Godahewa Courtesy Ceylon Today “Sir, after all those contributions to the nation, how could you lose the election?” a very emotional senior citizen asked the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a public event in Kurunegala just a few days ago. Rajapaksa gave an interesting answer to the senior citizen, “After the war, we […]

by Padraig Colman Courtesy Ceylon Today Sri Lankans have grown cynical about the number of public commissions and inquiries which have failed to shed any light or improve anything. Perhaps Sri Lankan politicians have learned from their former colonial masters that a good way to defuse a controversy is to set up an inquiry to delay […]

with Ravi Ladduwahetty Courtesy Ceylon Today Indeed, Russia and the U.S. were allies during the two tragic conflicts of the two World Wars, which allows us to think there’s something objectively bringing us together in difficult times, and I think – I believe – it has to do with geopolitical interests and also has a moral […]

By Nalliah Thayabharan In 1600, the East India Company was granted the Charter to trade with India. It started sending bands of sea pirates in ships masked as merchants”. These sea pirates began landing on the shores of India and started setting up armed forts at various places such as Chennai. The Rothschild family had […]

Written by: Agnes Chambre The UK has turned down countries wishing to strike free trade deals after Brexit because the Government does not have the capacity to negotiate them, the International Trade Secretary has said. Liam Fox said that instead, the Government is preparing to duplicate deals which already exist until they can be updated […]

– උපුටා ගැනීම – newsfirst.lk  Special Report: මධ්‍යම අධිවේගී මාර්ගයේ ටෙන්ඩරයෙන් ඇත්තටම රටට මුදල් ඉතිරි වුණා ද? බැඳුම්කර වංචාව ගැන අප 2015 මාර්තු 08 වැනිදා අප මුල්වරට හෙළි කිරීමෙන් පසුව අගමැතිවරයා එය ආරක්ෂා කරමින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කළ ප්‍රකාශය ඔබට මතක ද? අප පෙන්වා දුන්නේ සංවේදී අභ්‍යන්තර තොරතුරු ලබාගෙන බැඳුම්කර වෙන්දේසියේදී අක්‍රමිකතාවක් සිදුකර රජයට බිලියන ගණනක පාඩුවක් […]

Editorial Courtesy The Island September 8, 2017, 10:09 pm Several yahapalana ministers lamented during a parliamentary debate on the draconian tax reforms on Thursday that the government revenue was falling rapidly and its expenditure rising steeply. Tax laws had to be amended to increase the government revenue, they argued. Ironically, they said so, one day after […]

By Ajith Alahakoon and Kushan Subasinghe Courtesy The Island Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament yesterday that both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank had informed the country that they would not provide any more grants after 2019. Making a special ministerial statement, the Prime Minister said since the two leading bodies had expressed […]

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island JVP MP Sunil Handunnettii told Parliament yesterday that the Inland Revenue Bill has been designed to collect tax from each and every living citizen. Handunetti said the bill was so harmful to the people that the government should include the amendments submitted by the Opposition mitigate the adverse impact. He […]

COLOMBO, Aug 31 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka will cut government expenditure to stick to its 2017 budget deficit target of 4.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and compensate for a fall in revenue, the top bureaucrat in the finance ministry said on Thursday. We will re-arrange and cut some expenditure to meet the deficit […]

By Kelum Bandara Courtesy The Daily Mirror Joint Opposition MP Bandula Gunawardane, in an interview with Daily Mirror, spoke about the current economic situation in the country. The following are excerpts of the interview.      Under China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Hambantota Port is the proverbial goose laying golden eggs MP Ravi Karunanayake held responsible […]

By Rasika Hemamali Courtesy Ceylon Today The Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Prof. Terrance Purasinghe says the government has not delivered on its election promises. “The new Constitution is being drafted at a snail’s pace. Those reforms have not been implemented. The people wanted the Executive Presidential System […]

By Thilini Kahandawaarachchi Courtesy Ceylon Today During the last decade, China has heavily invested in ports across the world spanning from Africa to Australia. In South Asia, they built the Gwadar Port in Pakistan and the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka. Despite being a staggering US$1.12 billion investment, tripartite agreement between Sri Lanka Ports Authority, China […]

By Yusuf Ariff Courtesy Adaderana Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says that the policy on which the proposed new Inland Revenue law is based, is in keeping with the ideology of the UNP but is contrary to that of the SLFP. Issuing a statement today (21), he said that no member of the SLFP can pass legislation that […]

by Maheesha Mudugamuwa Courtesy The Island The cash-strapped government was planning to sell the southern expressway, the Colombo Outer Circular expressway and Colombo-Katunayake expressway to China for USD 600 million, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader MP Udaya Gammanpila alleged yesterday. He told The Island that the three vital roads would be initially handed over to an […]

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels 16 August 2017 Sri Lanka is planning to revamp its tax system to reverse a steady erosion of its tax base over the past two decades, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. The country is planning to submit a new Inland Revenue Act to parliament, which would broaden the […]

lanka C news පසුගිය දා සම්මුති ආණ්ඩුව විසින් චීනයට විකුණූ හම්බන්තොට වරාය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුවක් යටතේ නැවත පවරාගෙන එය ජනතාව සතු කරන බව හිටපු ආර්ථික සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍ය බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පැවසිය. එමෙන්ම මේ සතියේ ඉරිදා ලංකාදීප සමඟ සම්මුඛ සාකච්ඡාවකට සහභාගි වෙමින් වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුවේ අධිකරණ හා බුද්ධශාසන අමාත්‍ය ආචාර්ය විජේදාස රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ද ඒ ප්‍රකාශය සනාථ […]

– ප‍්‍රදීප් අනුර කුමාර  lanka C news හම්බන්තොට වරාය ඇතුළු ජාතික සම්පත් විකුණා දැමීමට සිදුව ඇත්තේ ඒවා පවත්වාගෙන යා නොහැකි නිසා නොව ආණ්ඩුවට වැඩ බැරි නිසා බව පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා ප්‍රකාශ කළේය. වරාය පමණක් නොව මත්තල ගුවන් තොට, ඩී. ආර්. විජයවර්ධන මාවතේ ඇති ඉඩම්, නුවරඑළිය වැනි ඵෙතිහාසික වටිනාකමකින් යුත් තැපැල් කන්තෝරු පවා විකිණීමට […]

by Elmo de Silva Courtesy The Island August 5, 2017, 6:35 pm I retired from the S.L.A.S after serving in several Departments, Ministries and in several districts. I served in the World Customs Organization (W.C.O ) in Brussels , Belgium for five years, promoting an International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures. After […]

The public is not plagued by debt but by fraud – Mahinda (English)

Courtesy The New Indian Express Aug 06 (NIE) TIRUCHY/NAGAPATTINAM- Bullets have failed to stop them, but a new bill adopted by the Sri Lankan parliament could. After going through phases of conflict and relative peace, the troubled life of fishermen from Tamil Nadu has entered new waters, thanks to the Sri Lankan Fisheries and the […]

BY RAVI LADDUWAHETTY Courtesy Ceylon Today Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa,in a special interview with Ceylon Today Sunday Edition, alleged that the Unity Government has accepted the bid from China Merchant Port Holdings Ltd, been accepted in a backdrop where the other company China Harbour Co. Ltd which had submitted the bid in a much more favourable […]

Norwegian expert submits interim report on Uma Oya Project

By Dr. Ranil Senanayake August 3, 2017, 9:42 pm The two quotes above are from Thomas Jefferson, who was an American Founding Father and principal author of the Declaration of Independence; he later served as the third President of United States. It illustrates with the shameful actions of the corrupt and hypocritical politicians who act as they […]

By: Amitendu Palit Courtesy  Financial Express The Country is hobbled by the fear that trade agreements will mean much greater access for trade partners to its market than it will get to theirs in the bargain. The South Asian region’s struggle to reconcile benefits of a progressive trade policy with the arguably detrimental effects that such a […]

by C.A.Chandraprema  Courtesy The Island July 29, 2017, 7:13 pm The signing of the Agreement with China Merchant Co to lease out the Hambantota port for 99 years went ahead on Saturday as scheduled. This announcement took place in the context of rumours that were swirling around that India had brought pressure on Sri Lanka to […]

ශ්‍රී ලංකා වරාය අධිකාරියේ ඉංජිනේරු සහ විධායක නිලධාරී සංගමය ණය ගෙවන්න වරාය විකිණීමේ බොරුව සහ ඇත්ත යථාර්තය..!!! 2016 වසරේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා වරාය අධිකාරිය උපයන සමස්ථ ආදායම රුපියල් බිලියන 44 කි.. ඒ ආදායමෙන් මෙහෙයුම් වියදම්, පරිපාලන වියදම්, ”ණය පොලිය” සහ වෙනත් වියදම් අඩු කිරීමෙන් පසුව පසුගිය 2016 වසරේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා වරාය අධිකාරියේ ශුද්ධ ලාභය රුපියල් බිලියන […]

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 […]