Aug 21 (Island) Although the country situation has somewhat eased after the crippling fuel and gas shortages were resolved to a great extent, how long supplies will be maintained is an open question. That, of course, is totally dependent on the country’s ability to pay for fuel imports. There was a somewhat reassuring comment the other day from CB Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe that we are now, touch wood, able to fund our essential imports & that we can survive without bridging finance. more..

Aug 21 (ST) SL could go without Dushmantha Chameera for the Asia Cup following an injury to the peroneal muscle in his left leg during a training session on Friday. Chameera was in the 20-man squad named for the six-nation tournament to be played in Dubai starting Aug 27, but with two weeks of rest recommended to the seamer, selectors are forced to look for an alternative. Nuwan Thushara is the likely replacement to SL’s squad as cover and selection committee sources said more..

Aug 21 (TM) Minister of Sports Roshan Ranasinghe opted to adopt a no-nonsense approach, unlike his predecessors, when he wielded the country’s Sports Law No. 25 of 1973 and, along with the powers vested in him, ensured that only the relevant SLC employees and Executive Committee officials were approved to make the trip to the UAE for the Asia Cup, which is scheduled to commence on 27 August. more..

Aug 21 (Island) Dayan Jayatilleka’s critique of Harsha de Silva’s escape plan for the economy (Harsha’s harsh blueprint and AKD as alternative, DailyFT, 18 Aug) does two things. First, it paints de Silva’s plan as a template straight out of Suharto’s Indonesia (and, quite naturally, Pinochet’s Chile), particularly in its application of hard, grinding austerity and economic liberalisation on all fronts. Secondly, it reflects Dr Jayatilleka’s disillusionment with the main Opposition, more..

Aug 21 (ST) The first leg of the 76th Bradby Shield encounter was all about balancing brawn, brain and intelligence and hosts Royal College definitely proved they were the superior side after blending all three components, to record a runaway 29-0 win against Trinity College at the Royal Sports Complex yesterday. After both teams took the field, all fired up, like perfect and well-tuned machines, Royal took the gamble of giving away the first phase of the game mostly defending, but they tactfully more..

Aug 21 (ST) Govt’s sudden declaration of a pre-emptive negotiated default of external debt on April 12 this year has been made at a time where there was an expected forex inflow of over US$10.7 billion in the pipeline as at April 4 to boost foreign reserves, an official forex inflow status report based on CB data submitted to the Treasury, has shown. The foreign debt default was announced jointly by then Finance Minister Ali Sabry and CB Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe on April 12, more..

Aug 21 (ST) Banks have managed to clear pending letters of credit (LC) after struggling to honour them for months. “The LC situation is getting better. We have cleared all pending LCs. Now we are honouring these as we did before,” a senior banker in a mid-sized bank told the Business Times. As early as June banks saw depleting dollar reserves and denying importers’ LCs in a crisis mirroring a devastating blow to the economy. Senior officials at the Central Bank (CB) at this time said that more..

Aug 21 (TM) Govt is looking at proceeding with the long-delayed construction of the third stage of the Central Expressway, with an initial discussion being held last week with the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC). It is learnt that officials from the Treasury and MCC had held an initial discussion on construction work of the third stage of the Central Expressway. A highly-placed Govt source said that preliminary discussion more..

Aug 21 (SO) When spin wizard Muttiah Muralidaran as a promising schoolboy cricketer from St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota completed back to back years capturing over 100 wickets each in the 1989-1990 and 1990-1991 seasons, it always seemed a tough record to better. But within the next 5 years, yet another spinner emerged – this time from St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa, bettered those schools records by capturing a total of 264 wickets in two seasons. more..

Aug 21 (ST) Litro Gas Lanka Ltd has successfully tackled the LPG crisis restoring supplies while reducing prices after streamlining the management, and expediting shipments to meet the demand for the next three months and beyond, company sources revealed. It has awarded a short-term LPG contract for 100,000 metric tonnes and received the quantity of 33,000 MTs consistently since July this year effectively easing the shortage in the market through a proper distribution system of more..

Aug 21 (TM) President Ranil Wickremesinghe is exploring the possibility of vesting Cabinet powers with the chairpersons of the newly-proposed parliamentary sectoral oversight committees, it is learnt. The President, it is also learnt, believes that the heads of the proposed sectoral oversight committees can participate in governance activities if they are vested with the powers of a cabinet minister. more..

Aug 21 (TM) National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) is currently evaluating the guidelines given by the Ministry of Water Supply on the proposed changes to the water tariffs, with the process still in its early stages. The agency is studying the guidelines which the Ministry has given it, following the green light for a tariff change by the Cabinet earlier this month. “NWSDB is currently analysing the costs and preparing estimates so as to revise the water tariffs in parallel to more..

Aug 21 (Island) British prime ministerial front runner Rishi Sunak last week reaffirmed his commitment to justice for mass atrocities committed in SL and discussed the possibility of applying targeted sanctions on SL officials similar to those the UK has used on Russians. At a meeting with British Tamil conservatives ahead of the British Conservative Party’s leadership election, Sunak said SL is in dire economic straits with record levels of inflation and shortages of basic necessities. more..

Aug 21 (Island) SL will experience periodical power cuts until 2027 if the govt does not take steps to increase power generation. CEB engineers say that people are in a state of shock over the sharply increased power tariff because the govt failed to introduce the increases in an affordable manner. CEBEU Prez, Saumya Kumarawadu said: “Govt should have increased tariff at regular intervals. We haven’t increased rates in a decade & suddenly we have increased by a large amount. more..

Aug 21 (Island) SL’s insurance penetration is less than two percent of the total population and there was enormous potential to grow this sector. However, motor insurance is doing well because every single vehicle owner has to obtain a vehicle insurance policy, newly appointed Chairman of SL Insurance Corporation Ronald Perera, PC, said. “Penetration of life insurance is less than two percent of the total population. Therefore we have to go to villages to promote and encourage more..

Aug 21 (ST) Hong Kong-listed Kerry Properties, a part of a large group which has interests in Shangri-La hotels in Colombo and Hambantota, said a residential and commercial property on a six-acre site overlooking Beira Lake, on Sir James Peiris Mawatha, is being reviewed considering SL’s economic meltdown and the political turmoil. This property project has been under review for some time. Kerry Properties, an investor and more..

Aug 21 (ENS) A SL delegation comprising its Tourism Minister Harin Fernando and cricketer-turned SL tourism brand ambassador Sanath Jayasuriya inaugurated a Destination Management Company in Ahmedabad on Saturday, in a bid to woo tourists from Gujarat to SL, emphasising that the country post the political turmoil has now had some political stability with the new Cabinet. Targeting religious circuits & pilgrimage routes in SL as attractions for tourists from India and more..

Aug 21 (AD) Ten members of U.S. Congress have stated that they remain deeply concerned by the unprecedented and disastrous economic crisis currently facing SL. In a letter addressed to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power, the ten congresspersons urged to take additional swift action to provide meaningful support to the SL people in their time of need. They, however, welcomed the efforts of the State Dept more..

Aug 21 (TM) The CEB stressed that it was not incurring an additional cost to generate electricity to fill the gap of nearly 300 MW following the breakdown of unit 1 of Lakvijaya Power Plant (LVPP) in Norochcholai, as a three-hour long power cut is now in effect with the approval of the regulator. CEB Addl Gen Manager Andrew Nawamuni said there was no additional diesel power-generated electricity added to the national grid to meet the shortage arising from the breakdown of unit 1. more..

Aug 21 (TM) Amidst warnings by the Health Promotion Bureau (HPB) and health sector stakeholders that child malnutrition is on the rise, health authorities claim that measures are underway to tackle the issue in the near and long term. Ministry of Health Secretary Janaka Sri Chandraguptha said that the Ministry had formulated an emergency nutrition plan to address the issue of child malnutrition, in collaboration with the UN, the WHO, and the Ministry’s Nutrition Division. more..

Aug 21 (ST) While the appointment of SJB MP Dr Harsha De Silva as the new Chairman of Parliament’s Committee on Public Finance (CPF) has been confirmed, uncertainty surrounds the positions of new chairpersons of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and Committee on Public Accounts (COPA). The SJB has requested its MPs be appointed as COPE & COPA chairpersons, with Eran Wickramaratne more..

Aug 21 (ST) Sri Lanka opened international competitive biddings for fertiliser imports with strict regulations imposed by the World Bank to ensure a fraud-and-corruption-free process, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said. In terms of the World Bank guidelines, contractors and sub-contractors are required to permit the World Bank team to inspect records, accounts and other documents relating to the procurement process and audited by auditors appointed by the WB. more..

Aug 21 (ST) The CB’s two former governors—Indrajit Coomaraswamy and Sunil Mendis—refused pension benefits that were introduced last year at the behest of another former Governor, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, a response to a Right to Information (RTI) application shows. Mr Cabraal was first paid pension arrears for his first term as governor from July 2006 to January 2015. He now receives the benefit computed on a significantly higher salary for the mere six-and-a-half months he served from more..

Aug 21 (ST) It was amidst widespread protests and an exploding economic crisis that Percy Mahinda Rajapaksa quit as PM in May this year. He was heeding a request from his brother, then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to step down. Protestors made accusations against both, but the President stayed on. He sacrificed others including Basil Rajapaksa, who was Finance Minister. more..

Aug 22 (DM) A delegation from the IMF is expected to visit our country between August 24 and 31 in response to Lanka’s application for a facility from the institution. At present we have to pay off US$3.4 billion between June and Dec this year, US$5.8 billion in 2023, US$4.9 billion in 2024, US$6.2 billion in 2025, US$4.0 billion in 2026 and US$4.3 billion in 2027. The majority of these debts come in the form of Sovereign bond sales - short-term loans - which to be repaid at high interest rates i more..

Aug 22 (DM) Preserving democratic values, ensuring the maintenance of democratic standards and strengthening the process of democratization, are formidable measures for any country. When a country with a population of nearly one and a half billion embraces democracy as its political ideology, continuously champions this system for more than seven decades and implements it across the entirety of its length and breadth and at all levels of its political being, it is clear that democracy more..

Aug 22 (CT) If Sri Lanka is to achieve its economic potential, at least by 2023 or 2024, the newly elected Prez stated, maximising labour force participation was essential. Taking into consideration the declining female labour force participation, it is important to understand concerns affecting women. Among the many issues highlighted, sexual harassment in public transport was among the key issues that restrict more..

Aug 22 (ST) The people asked for Gota to go home, not for him to flee the country. If the ex-President chose self-exile to remaining at home, shouldn’t it be his lookout? Shouldn’t expenses incurred in taking flight, be his to bear from his own funds, and not from the public’s pauperised purse? Apparently no, according to the Cabinet Spokesman. Definitely so, according to the Govt Information Dept. At the weekly cabinet briefing on Tuesday, Minister Bandula Gunawardena told the media, more..

Aug 22 (CT) Yesterday, this newspaper, quoting India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, said that India would give all the help it could to Sri Lanka at the IMF. India is one of the foremost countries that have pushed for the IMF bailout package for SL amidst the financial meltdown and political crisis, it further said. According to reports, SL is seeking an IMF bailout package to the tune of US$ three billion. An IMF team is due in the island on a week’s visit on Wednesday. more..

Aug 22 (TM) Last week, SL faced a crucial foreign policy test with the arrival of the controversial Chinese satellite tracking vessel Yuan Wang 5 at the Hambantota International Port (HIP) for a six-day replenishment stop. SL’s decision to defer the previously permitted visit, followed by consultation and the subsequent greenlight for the vessel to dock at HIP later (16 Tuesday), highlights the diplomatic trilemma that small island nations like SL more..

Aug 22 (Island) Finnish PM Sanna Marin, 36, has come under heavy fire over a leaked video, which shows her cutting the rug at a friend’s shindig. Her political rivals have frowned on what they call her carefree ways, claiming that someone at the party is heard saying cocaine, but there is no certainty the term was used; some of them even asked her to take a drug test, and she has done so to clear doubts. Test results are expected shortly. Insisting that she has never taken drugs, more..

Aug 22 (Island) Advocata Institute’s recently concluded Reset Sri Lanka conference covered numerous areas of necessary reforms across our social and economic landscape. They ranged from reforms in the tax regime to better targeting social safety nets to privatization and/or restructuring of State-Owned Enterprises. Listening to each of the excellent presentations and panel discussions, there seemed to be one recurrent, underlying thematic Root Cause across many of these topics. more..

Aug 22 (ST) One of the problems of democratic governance is it does not address problems faced by society as fast and as quickly as may be desirable. On the other hand, a positive feature is it facilitates an informed decision making process after adequate discussion among stakeholders and other agencies of govt which must of course take time. That is the theory. However in practice in many functioning democracies this does not always happen. more..

Aug 22 (ST) Ministry of Sports is on the verge of compensating the athletes who won medals at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022 held in Birmingham, after a recent plea made by sprinter Yupun Abeykoon. Abeykoon, who claimed the bronze medal in the Men’s 100m event, SL’s first ever such feat at a CWG Men’s 100m, had requested Ministry of Sports to sponsor him on a long term plan. Sources close to the sprinter disclosed that the Italy-based athlete more..

Aug 22 (GV) Most politicians have a questionable relationship with reality. The Rajapaksas operate in a reality that is all their own. Asked why brother Gotabaya fled the country, Mahinda Rajapaksa replied, “Who accuses him of fleeing? He went for a medical check-up.” So the SLPP, that quintessential Rajapaksa party, acts as if the recent popular uprising happened in a parallel universe. As poverty engulfs new swathes of population more..