By Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy The Island The total loss incurred by the Employment Providence Fund (EPF) due to the bond scam alone is over Rs 26 billion, Center for Human Rights (CHR) Executive Director Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon said yesterday addressing a press conference at Rajagiriya. Referring to a report prepared by former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) […]

Courtesy  The Daily Mirror The country’s economy would be managed by a the Economic Development Council headed by President Maithripala Sirisena from this year onwards, President Sirisena said addressing an election rally in Kegalle yesterday. The President said that he had set up an Economic Development Council headed by him to manage the country’s economy […]

www.thenews.com.pk COLOMBO: Sri Lanka aims to raise $500 million this month via development bonds and is in the process of divesting two state-owned hotels, the central bank and a ministry said on Monday, as the government faces unprecedented debt repayment this year. President Maithripala Sirisenea´s administration must repay an estimated 1.97 trillion rupees ($12.85 billion) […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The government has borrowed over USD 14.6 billion in foreign currency loans alone during the short period of 36 months that this government has been in power, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said today. He said even though 14.6 billion USD would suffice to build five Norochcholai power plants, five Hambantota harbours […]

Courtesy The Island January 6, 2018, 7:46 pm Former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal yesterday said that Treasury Bond issues from 2008 to 20014 have “already been closely examined by the Auditor General (AG) in response to a request made Aug. 19, 2016, by then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake under section 43(2) of the […]

Courtesy Ceylon Today A Bill, which will enable the State to recover a sum of Rs 8.5 billion, that was allegedly robbed by those involved in the Central Bank Treasury Bonds scam, will be presented to the House when Parliament convenes for the first time in 2018, Co-Cabinet Spokesman, Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera said yesterday. He […]

තොරතුරු තාක්‌ෂණ වෘත්තීයවේදීන්ගේ සංගමයේ ලේකම් ලසන්ත වික්‍රමසිංහ  වෘත්තිකයන්ගේ ජාතික පෙරමුණ විසින් පසුගියදා කොළඹ මහජන පුස්‌තකාල ශ්‍රවනාගාරයේදී ‘රට විකිණීමට එරෙහිව් පැවැත්වූ සම්මන්ත්‍රණයේදී තොරතුරු තාක්‌ෂණ වෘත්තීයවේදීන්ගේ සංගමයේ ලේකම් ලසන්ත වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා විසින් එට්‌කා ගිවිසුම සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආර්ථික ඝාතකයෝ යන තේමාව යටතේ පැවැත්වූ දේශනය:  එට්‌කා ගිවිසුම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප්‍රධාන වගකීම දරන අමාත්‍ය මලික්‌ සමරවික්‍රම මහත්තයාට මේ රටේ සංවර්ධනය […]

COLOMBO, Jan 2 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s central bank said on Tuesday it had taken action against two distressed financial companies to safeguard the overall financial system. It appointed a panel to manage Swarnamahal Financial Services PLC and its parent company ETI Finance Ltd, while curbing withdrawals of maturing deposits for six months, citing a […]

Upali Cooray Former General Manager of SATHOSA Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has said government has taken measures to introduce fair price shops in collaboration with private sector and Sathosa to ensure fair prices for essential commodities in the open market. This statement of the prime minister is something like dousing fires without preventing fires. Considering the fact that the oncoming crucialelections scheduled for […]

COLOMBO, Dec 29 (Reuters) – The Sri Lankan rupee closed lower on Friday, ending the year 2.5 percent weaker, as demand for dollars from importers and banks outweighed inward remittances and conversion of the U.S. currency by exporters, dealers said. The spot rupee closed at 153.60/65 per dollar, compared with Thursday’s 153.50/70. The currency’s fall […]

ශ්‍යාම් නුවන් ගනේවත්ත  ගිය වසරේ (2016) ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකු වාර්තාවේ සඳහන්ව ඇති පරිදි මේ වසරේ (2017) ශ්‍රී ලංකා ආර්ථිකය සියයට 5 කින් වර්ධනය වනු ඇතැයි මුලින් අපේක්‌ෂා කළේය. එහෙත් එය දැන් සියයට 4.0 – 4.5 ත් අතර අගයකට සීමා වනු ඇතැයි zමෑත කාලීන ආර්ථික ප්‍රවණතාZ වාර්තාවෙහි සඳහන්ය. මේ පසුබිම තුළ පසුගිය දෙවසර මෙන්ම මේ […]

By Sanchith Karunaratna Courtesy Adaderana MP Dinesh Gunawardena made a request from the speaker of parliament to schedule parliamentary sessions before the current scheduled date in January, to formulate a resolution to the current state of economic turmoil that the country is faced with. He further stated that the JO will submit a written request to the […]

by P.G.Punchihewa Ph.D. November 4, 2017, 6:18 pm Nearly two million people in at least 22 districts out of 25 are reported to be affected by the continuing drought. Among the districts are Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Kurunegala, Puttalam , Jaffna ,Kilinochchi, Mullativu ,Matale and Moneragala. Most of the large, medium and small tanks […]

TE RAJA SIMHAN Courtesy The Hindu Business Line  Maersk Line (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives), a part of Maersk Group, is a leading container shipping line in the region with footprint across 25 offices, 55 inland acceptance points and across 16 Indian ports. Steve Felder, Managing Director of Maersk Line in Asia, spoke to BusinessLine on […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island December 12, 2017, 11:22 pm Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe yesterday alleged that the failure on the part of successive governments to take tangible measures to tackle state sector waste, corruption and irregularities had contributed to US decision to propose a Colombo-based Resident Legal Advisor. Had those who had been at […]

කතු වැකිය උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින වගාවට මුල්තැන දෙන සංස්‌කෘතියක්‌ හදන්නට, ගොවියා රජ කරවන්නට, රට සහලින් ස්‌වයංපෝෂිත කරවන්නට පැමිණි යහපාලන ආණ්‌ඩුව හාල්, පොල්, පිටරටින් ගෙන්වන්නට සැරසෙන බව කියෑවේ. ඉස්‌සර නම් කීවේ ‘හඳෙන් ගෙනැවිත්’ හෝ හාල් දෙන බවය. එහෙව් එකේ පිටරටින් හෝ හාල් පොල් ගෙන්වීමට තීරණය කිරීම ගැන අපේ අහිතක්‌ නැත. එහෙත් දුකට කාරණාවක්‌ තිබේ. එනම් තේ, […]

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ හිටපු අධිපති අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල් -උපුටාගැණීම ලංකාදීප නීලහරිත අයවැය, රටේ ණය ආර්ථිකයේ තත්ත්වය, මූල්‍ය අරමුදලේ කොන්දේසි අනුව අයවැය ඉදිරිපත් කළා යැයි චෝදනා කරන්නේ ඇයි යන කාරණා සම්බන්ධයෙන් කළ විමසුමකි මේ. ප‍්‍රශ්නය:- යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුවේ නීලහරිත අයවැය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔබේ අදහස් කෙබඳුද?පිළිතුර:- ඉතාමත් අර්බුදකාරී පැහැදිලි දැක්මක් නොමැති අයවැයක් හැටියට මේ අයවැය හඳුන්වන්න පුළුවන්. එහෙම කියන්න කාරණා […]

කතෘ:යුතුකම  -විශ්ව චින්තන- ලංකාවේ විශාලතම කෘෂි ව්‍යාපෘතිය ලෙස මොරගහකන්ද ගැන මුලින්ම කථා කරන්නේ 1955 වසරේදීය.නැවත 1977දී කඩිනම් මහවැලි ව්‍යාපෘතිය යටතේ මොරගහකන්ද නැවත කරලියට එයි.නමුත් මහින්ද යුගය එලැබෙන විටත් 60 වසරක් තිස්සේ එකඳු පස් පිඩැල්ලක් හෝ කැපීමට කිසිදු රජයකට හැකි වූයේ නැත. රට කෘෂිකර්මයෙන් ස්වයං පෝෂිත කිරීමේ මහින්ද චින්තන දැක්ම අනුව ආරම්භ කල වෙහෙරගල, වේලි ඔය, […]

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By Nalaka Godahewa As you know , Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948. That was 69 years ago. Since independence except for two years;1954 and 1955,  Sri Lanka  has always had a budget deficit. These deficits were mostly bridged through local and foreign borrowings. When Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa became the 5th executive president of the […]

By Kelum Bandara Courtesy The Daily Mirror Former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal in an interview with the Daily Mirror spoke about the Government’s Budget and its implications. The interview done with Cabraal follows.   Q As the former Governor of Central Bank how do you view the Budget which the Government claims is futuristic and is […]

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island A delay in developing the Colombo Port East Terminal had led to a loss of Rs 3.5 billion to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told parliament yesterday. Minister Samarasinghe revealed this, speaking at the committee stage debate on Budget 2018, when the Finance […]

උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට සුද්දන්ගෙන් නිදහස ලැබුණේ 1948දීය. එදා සිට මේ වන විට වසර 69ක් ගතවී ඇත. අපට පසු නිදහස ලැබූ බොහෝ ආසියාතික රටවල් අද ලෝකයේ දියුණුතම රටවල් අතරට එක්වී සිටියදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තවමත් දියුණු වෙමින් පවතින රටකි. මේ යන විදියට නම් තවත් අවුරුදු 50කටවත් මේ රට දියුණු රටක් වේ යැයි සිතිය නොහැක්කේ දියුණුව යනු […]

By Sanchith Karunaratna Courtesy  Adaderana Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa stated that the volume of foreign investments arriving into Sri Lanka has gravely declined due to the prevailing political instability that has dissuaded many international investors. He further stated that the only foreign reserves remaining in the country are those that arrived during the previous regime. Mahinda Rajapaksa […]

Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror While claiming that fraud and corruption of the government had put the country into an economic crisis, former President and MP Mahinda Rajapaksa said today no plan had been proposed in the budget or future development programmes by the President and the Prime Minister to come out […]

Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror Joint Opposition MP Wimal Weerawansa said today the government had obtained Rs. 4.7 trillion as loans for three years whereas only Rs. 5.2 trillion was obtained as loans for nine years during the previous regime. Speaking during the budget debate, he said the debt burden had gone […]

Editorial Courtesy The Island November 14, 2017, 8:35 pm Yahapalana leaders declared, in the run-up to the 2015 presidential election, that there was no threat of war. They accused the Rajapaksa government of tilting at windmills, years after the conclusion of the war, and suppressing people’s democratic rights in the name of national security. True, […]

By Prof. Sirimevan Colombage Emeritus Professor, Open University of Sri Lanka Courtesy The Island November 14, 2017, 8:36 pm It would be a suicidal mission for the Central Bank to undertake inflation target-based monetary policy without strictly enforcing budget discipline by the government as I cautioned in my article in The Island of November 1, 2017. […]

Views of politicos on the budget (English)