President Ranil Wickremesinghe said in Parliamenty yesterday he was aware that Value Added Tax (VAT) was a burden on the public. He said it would be possible to reduce VAT with the passage of time. Delivering the government policy statement at the commencement of the new session of Parliament, the President said: “The prior scarcity […]

Inaugurating the 5th session of the 9th Parliament of Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe called upon all lawmakers to collaborate in nation building  even though they would be contesting elections separately. “From ancient times to the present day, our world has encountered a myriad of crises, spanning nations and personal lives alike. While some crises […]

By D. L. Sirimanne I dreamt I was the Radio Officer on a KLM Super Constellation flight to Colombo with a Dutch crew. Flight Information sent us a ‘red alert’ that Colombo Airport was closed and to divert the flight to Jaffna. I immediately informed the Captain and he accordingly altered heading to Jaffna. I […]

The exchange rate (ER) last week had the dubious distinction of making a steep dive to hit Rs. 130 by being depreciated by nearly Rs. 5 against the US dollar ($) in a week in interbank trading on the back of import demand, but since then has seemingly been tenuously holding on to those levels ...

“Our sense is that if we do not act boldly and if we do not act together, the economy around the world runs the risk of a downward spiral of uncertainty, financial instability and potential collapse of global demand… we could run the risk of what some commentators are already calling the lost decade” – ...

A survey conducted last week on the health of the Sri Lankan economy revealed that almost 64% said that the Government had done its task but only 43% had said that there had been growth in the economy. Whilst some can say that this data is strange, a similar set of information was shared at ...