Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Mahinda Rajapaksa has given direction to implement several initiatives to revive the economy as the consumers are saddled with high cost of living, Finance ministry said today. It said in a statement that the President and the Prime Minister have raised concerns regarding the serious setback […]

උපුටාගැණීම අද දෙරණ පසුගිය වසර 3ක කාලය තුළ අඩු වර්ධන වේගය සහ ඉහළ යන ජීවන වියදම තුළින් පිළිබිඹු වූ පරිදි ආර්ථිකයේ දැඩි බිඳ වැටීම කෙරෙහි ජනාධිපතිතුමාගේ සහ අග‍්‍රාමාත්‍ය හා මුදල් හා ආර්ථික කටයුතු අමාත්‍යතුමාගේ අවධානය යොමු වී ඇත. මෙම තත්ත්වය උද්ගතවූයේ රටේ පවතින තත්ත්වයන්ට නොගැලපෙන්නා වූ සහ දේශීය ව්‍යවසායකයන් සහ කර්මාන්තවලට අහිතකර වූ පෙර පැවති […]

Courtesy Adaderana Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs today announced several important economic policy changes and initiatives to provide relief to the masses and revive the economy. Considering the high tax imposed on the Telecommunication services, the government has decided to reduce the Telecommunication Levy from 25% to […]

ඉෂාරා සිල්වා ඡායාරූප – ඒෂාන් දසනායක  උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම රටේ සියලු ජන කොටස්වලට ප්‍රතිලාභ ලැබෙන ආකාරයට පනවා තිබෙන සංකීර්ණ බදු ක්‍රමය සරල කර නිශ්චිත ආර්ථික ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් හඳුන්වාදීමට කටයුතු කරන බව නව මුදල් හා ආර්ථික කටයුතු අමාත්‍ය අගමැති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පැවැසීය. ඊයේ (31දා) කොළඹ ලෝටස් පාරේ පිහිටි මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශයේදී නව මුදල් හා ආර්ථික කටයුතු ඇමැතිවරයා ලෙස වැඩභාර ගැනීමෙන් […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම නෙත් පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුව විසින් පවනා තිබූ බදු රැසක් සංශෝධනය කිරීමට මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශය තීරණය කර තිබෙනවා. ඒ මගින් මෙතෙක් පනවා තිබූ බදු රැසක් පහත දැමීමටයි මුදල් අමාත්‍යාශය තීරණය කර ඇත්තේ. 14% ක සහනදායී ආදායම් බදු අනුපාතය වර්තමානයේදී අදාල වන්නේ කෘෂි කාර්මික කටයුතු වල නිරත සමාගම් වලට පමණි. කෘෂි කාර්මික ව්‍යාපාර වල නියුතු අනෙකුත් පුද්ගලයන්ගේ් […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Assuming duties as the Finance and Economic Affairs Minister yesterday, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa hinted towards his plans to return Sri Lanka to the inward-looking economy that he had built during his presidency from 2005 to 2014. While acknowledging the important role foreign direct investment could play in Sri Lanka’s economic […]

Courtesy The Island Colombo, Sri Lanka | AFP | Tuesday: Sri Lanka on Tuesday called for a “coalition of the willing” to help stabilise free-falling emerging market currencies around the globe, as the beleaguered rupee slumped to fresh lows. The island’s currency bottomed out at a record-low 174.12 rupees to the dollar, resisting a slew […]

COLOMBO, Oct 22 (Reuters) – ** The Sri Lankan rupee hit a record low on Monday as banks and importers purchased the U.S. dollar, while stocks edge up from their nearly five-year closing low hit in the previous session. ** The rupee dropped 0.4 percent to an all-time low of 172.50 per dollar, surpassing its […]

Editorial Courtesy The Island October 22, 2018, 8:51 pm Former Petroleum Minister Chandima Weerakkody has called the government’s fuel pricing formula an affront to the people’s intelligence. He views it as a mechanism contrived to jack up fuel prices continually and raise funds for a spendthrift government. He is one of the ousted SLFP ministers who […]

Kamal Ahmed Economics editor Courtesy BBC How do you measure the value and success of the economy? Traditionally, by reporting on gross domestic product – the amount an economy produces of goods like cars and services like tourism. But, since the financial crisis that measure has been questioned. It can go up – showing growth – while […]

By Tharindi Pabasara Courtesy Adaderana The fuel pricing formula is not suitable for Sri Lanka, says the former Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake. He stated this responding to the queries raised by the media today (19). According to the former Minister Karunanayake, it is sufficient to formulate a method of determining the prices without being counterproductive to […]

Anirban Bhaumik, DH News Service, New Delhi,  Sri Lanka has stalled China’s bid to spread its tentacles into the island nation’s war-ravaged Tamil-majority Northern Province, where several reconstruction projects are being funded by India. Sri Lanka has this week reversed its earlier decision… Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/national/india-relieved-chinas-foray-698835.html

BENJAMIN BROWN, LORITTA CHAN, and KANCHANA N RUWANPURA  Courtesy opendemocracy.net As capital elbows its way in and remakes the world according to its own designs, the need to democratise this polity is more urgent than ever. Early in October 2018, the latest IPCC report issued a stark warning, urging ‘rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society’ within the next […]

lanka C news ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මුළු විදේශ ණයවලින් චීනය වෙත ගෙවීමට ඇත්තේ 10%ක ප්‍රමාණයක් පමණක් බව චීනය අවධාරණය කරයි. චීන විදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්‍යාංශය මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශක ‘ලු කන්ග්’ මහතා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ එරට දී පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවක් අමතමිනි. චීන රජය විසින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ණය උගුලක සිර කර ඇතැයි පැවසෙන ප්‍රකාශ සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම අසත්‍ය බව ද කොළඹ […]

COLOMBO, Oct 18 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka has reversed a decision to award a $300-million housing deal to China in favour of a joint venture with an Indian company, the government said, ahead of a visit by the prime minister to its South Asian neighbour. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will meet his counterpart Narendra Modi […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s much-talked about Fuel Pricing Formula was revealed in detail to the media by Minister of Finance and Mass Media Mangala Samaraweera, at a press conference in Colombo today (18). The Cabinet of Minister had granted approval for the implementation of a cost reflective formula based pricing system of auto fuels effective […]

Kalathma Jayawardhane Courtesy The Daily Mirror Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had decided to appoint a Special Economic Committee headed by former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, to look into the economic crisis in the country, and to provide recommendations, the Joint Opposition (JO) said today. JO member MP Wimal Weerawansa told a news conference that […]

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror The joint opposition (JO) said today the Sri Lanka rupee would hit 200 against the US Dollar by the end of this year if the Singapore FTA, which had enabled thousands of items to be imported without taxes, was still operative. JO MP Bandula Gunawardana told a news conference that […]

Courtesy Adaderana A private sector think-tank says that only 8% of the government’s budget promises are progressing in line with their targets and that the pace of progress is slow, at the end of the first six months of 2018. Further, progress on 33% of proposals are categorised as either broken, neglected or undisclosed.” This […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror China’s Vice Finance Minister Zou Jiayi has acknowledged debt issues with some of its ‘Belt and Road’ projects, saying the government will strengthen macro-supervision on the debt sustainability aspect of its overseas investments, the Reuters reported on Saturday. The debt sustainability issue of Belt and Road (projects) is a complicated issue, but […]

ඉෂාරා සිල්වා උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම නව ඉන්ධන මිල පිළිබඳ තීරණය කිරීමට රාජ්‍ය ඇමැති ආචාර්ය හර්ෂ ද සිල්වා අගමැතිවරයා සාකච්ඡා කළ බව පුවත්පත්වල සඳහන් වන බවත් එම මිල තීරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල කුමක් කියන්නේද, නව තීරණයෙන් රුපියල මස්තබාල්දු වන එක නතර වෙනවාද, බදු අඩු කිරීමට තීරණය කරනවාද යන්න රටට හෙළි කළ යුතු බවත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි ආචාර්ය බන්දුල […]

පනාගොඩ – චම්පා ජීවන්ති උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම අද හැමෝම අහන ප්‍රශ්නයක් තමා කවුද විපක්‍ෂයෙන් ඉදිරි ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කරන අපේක්‍ෂකයා කියලා. මේ ගැන එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයට විශාල ප්‍රශ්නයක් පැනනැඟිලා තියෙනවා. ඒගොල්ලෝ එක එක දේවල් කියනවා ඒ ගැන. එහෙත් දෙවරක්ම ජනාධිපතිවරණයට තමන්ගේ පක්‍ෂයේ නායකයාව ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නට බැරි වෙච්ච එක ගැන එයාලා කල්පනා කරන්නේ නැහැ. ඒ කොහොම වුණත් ඒ පිළිබඳව […]

By Tharindi Pabasara Courtesy Adaderana The Sri Lankan Rupee depreciated against the US Dollar as the selling rate of the US Dollar reached the 173 mark. According to the daily indicative exchange rates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the buying rate of the US Dollar is recorded at Rs 169.0186 while the selling rate is […]

A Response from Ajith Nivard Cabraal, former Governor of the Central Bank Courtesy The Island October 11, 2018, 9:04 pm In Aesop’s Fables’ “The Fox and the Grapes”, the fox, when it finds that it is unable to reach the grapes it is seeking, claims that the “grapes are sour”, and hence it’s not worthwhile reaching […]

By Hiran H.Seneiwiratne Courtesy The Island October 11, 2018, 8:15 pm The government’s price control practice  through taxation on essential items does not serve the purpose because it limits the value in reducing cost and damage markets by preventing the supply of products from rising to meet demand, a top market research company said. “The price […]

by Sanath Nanayakkare Courtesy The Island The current government’s needlessly self-destructive overemphasis of corruption and the oft-repeated ‘debt mountain’ scared away foreign investors who lost faith in the country’s administrative and financial system, Dr Nalaka Godahewa, former chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) told the media at the Patriotic Professionals’ press briefing held on Monday. […]

ආචාර්ය නාලක ගොඩහේවා උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම ලංකාවේ මේ අවස්ථාවේ විශාල සමාජ ආර්ථික දේශපාලන අර්බුදයක් ඇති බව නොපිළිගන්නා අයෙක් වේ නම් ඒ එක්කෝ බොරුකාරයෙකි. නැත්නම් මෝඩයෙකි. මන්ද සත්‍යය ඕනෑම අයකුට ඇස් ඉදිරිපිටම දක්නට ඇති බැවිනි. දේශපාලන වේදිකාවල රටේ ජනතාවට හැමදාමත් බිල්ලන් මවන වත්මන් අගමැතිවරයාගේ අලුත්ම හෙළිදරව්ව නම් ලෝක ආර්ථික අර්බුදයක් ඇති බවත් ලංකාව ඉන් පීඩනයට ලක්වී ඇති බවත්ය. […]

Panos Mourdoukoutas Courtesy forbes.com The IMF won’t solve Pakistan’s debt problem. In dealing with a soaring foreign debt, Pakistan has a couple of choices. One of them is to cancel Chinese projects, as Malaysia did back in August. The other choice is to allow China to turn debt into equity, as Sri Lanka did back in […]

JANAKI CHANDRARATNA It is heartening to note that the government is paying serious attention to the rapid depreciation of the rupee and the deterioration of the economy. We are being told that the import of luxury cars and other luxury items will be suspended for a short period of six months to improve foreign exchange […]

by Sanath Nanayakkare Courtesy The Island Woeful mismanagement of the economy coupled with the resultant steep fall in foreign reserves and the unjustifiable depreciation of the rupee will leave the government with serious cashflow problems in the future and the general public will have to stand in queues across the country every single day for hours […]