… USD 5 mn paid to Iran a month By Shamindra Ferdinando Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera has confirmed that consumers of petrol and diesel have been made to pay Rs. 50 to Rs. 55 per litre since the middle of last year to settle what the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) owed its creditors. […]

By Saman Indrajith Forty-eight-year-old Batticaloa District MP Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, popularly known as Pillayan, has been shaping the Eastern Province’s political narrative since he was a teenager. He was just 16-years old when he joined the LTTE in 1990 as a child soldier. Since then, he continued to rise in the ranks of the LTTE until […]

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By Shamindra Ferdinando Even after imposing 18 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) on fuel with effect from January 1, the government continued to charge Rs 50 on a litre of both petrol and diesel purportedly to recover losses incurred by the highly corrupt state owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC

Sri Lanka’s inflation rose to 4.0 percent in December, the third consecutive monthly rise as the cash-strapped nation was set to increase taxes from the New Year.The benchmark Colombo Consumer Price Index jumped by 1.7 points to reach 195.1, or a 4.0 percent increase compared to a year ago when inflation was 57.2 percent. The […]

Education of about 54.9 percent of Sri Lankan students has been affected by the economic crisis since March 2022, the latest Household Survey on Impact of Economic Crisis – 2023 by the Department of Census and Statistics reveals. Out of the respondents surveyed 93.5 percent have adopted at least one strategy to counter the impact […]

The Middle East conflagration has been brought very close to South Asia by a suspected drone attack a couple of days back on an Israel-linked chemical tanker headed for India, off the latter’s coast. The attack comes close on the heels of similar reported strikes on international tankers in the Red Sea, which have compelled […]

[An article based on the Keynote Address delivered by Dr. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, recently at the Annual Research Symposium 2023 of the University of Colombo] Introduction Inflation affects every aspect of our lives; it is a force that shapes our purchasing power, influences our financial decisions, and […]

By MEERA SRINIVASAN As Sri Lanka tries to rebuild its battered economy after last year’s devastating crisis, the country’s political scene is gradually heating up, in the run up to two national elections scheduled next year — parliamentary and presidential — that will give citizens their first chance to vote, after they dislodged the Rajapaksas […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means Patali Champika Ranawaka on Tuesday (12) alleged that the Finance Ministry had allowed the operation of a distillery in spite of that company failing to pay taxes. The former minister said that the country lost millions for want of political will to recover what that company owed […]

How come royalty on foreign players replaced with additional Rs 50 charge on a litre of fuel? by Shamindra Ferdinando Convenor of the Samagi Joint Trade Union Alliance Ananda Palitha yesterday (12) said that the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government was planning to impose VAT on fuel

by Harim Peiris As we approach the end of 2023 and with about a year to go for the next presidential election due before end 2024, President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s frequent refrain and indeed the rationale for his administration is the revival of the national economy after it was spectacularly destroyed by his predecessor’s administration, ironically […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Chairman of the Sectoral Oversight Committee (SOC) on National Security, Rear Admiral (retd.) Sarath Weerasekera yesterday (05) said that over a year after the killing of eight persons, including SLPP MP Amarakeerthi Atukorale and his police bodyguard and destruction of approximately 150 private properties the government was yet to conduct a proper […]

What has been widely described as the “historic” Supreme Court judgment which by a majority 4-1 decision of a five-judge bench held the Rajapaksa brothers, Mahinda, Gotabaya and Basil and other unelected officials including two past Governors of the Central Bank, a former Secretary to the President, a former Treasury Secretary and some members of […]