Sep 23 (Island) The importation and distribution of petroleum products, which had previously been carried out by several foreign oil companies, were transferred to the CPC through legislation presented to Parliament in 1962. At the time, this was repeatedly portrayed as a major national achievement and an act of patriotism. It is said that, after receiving compensation for their assets, the foreign companies were preparing to withdraw to their respective home countries. more..

Sep 23 (TM) Football Federation of SL (FFSL) President Jaswar Umar confirmed that with effect from January next year, possession of a recognised coaching licence from the sport’s domestic controlling body will be made mandatory. He said this requirement will encompass all coaches attached to schools, football academies and those affiliated to local clubs, and emphasised that the FFSL will not greenlight any games conducted by any such institution linked to coaches from more..

Sep 23 (CI) Fitch Ratings said it has upgraded SL’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating to ‘B-’ from ‘CCC+’, with a Stable outlook, citing sustained macro-stabilisation policies and structural reforms that have eased external financing risks and built a degree of resilience to shocks. Even at ‘B-’, SL remains in speculative-grade territory, five notches below the investment-grade cut-off, so the upgrade changes little for the country’s access more..

Sep 23 (DN) SJB MP S.M. Marikkar challenged the govt in Parliament to hold the Provincial Council elections without further delay as a litmus test to gauge the people’s mandate. He asked the govt where the dollars are which is required to import raw material to build the country’s essential mass scale infrastructure citing that they cannot be developed with SL Rupees. “According to the IMF, to pay the debt by the end of this year in December, if US$ 8.465 b is required in the country’s reserves, more..

Sep 23 (Island) Japanese investor Yoshimichi Watanabe has entered into a partnership with Colombo Stock Exchange-listed Hunas Holdings, in a move that comes as the diversified conglomerate prepares a significant expansion of its hospitality and real estate interests in SL. The partnership brings foreign capital and international market experience into one of Sri Lanka’s fastest-diversifying listed groups at a point when the Group is actively building out its pipeline across both sectors. more..

Sep 23 (CI) England are finally on the rise again in ODIs, after a long period of stagnation and decline. They pulled off their lowest successful defence in four years as they cruised past SL at the Riverside in Durham, and have now won five matches out of seven since the start of this year under Harry Brook and Brendon McCullum. The first ODI was more competitive than any of the three T20Is last week, as England wobbled against more..

Sep 23 (CI) Ashen Bandara and Niroshan Dickwella have earned recalls to SL's T20I squad for the Asian Games men's cricket competition. Bandara last played an international in 2023 while Dickwella's previous T20I came in 2021. Sineth Jayawardena, Sohan de Livera, Wanuja Sahan and Garuka Sanketh received maiden T20I call-ups to the 15-member contingent to be captained by Sahan Arachchige. SL opted to leave out most of their first-choice T20I players, and selected Bandara more..

Sep 23 (FT) Tea exports during the first eight months of 2026 have declined by 5% year-on-year, with shipments continuing to be affected by higher freight and insurance costs and access disruptions in key markets. Tea exports of 22.8 Mnkg in Aug 2026, down 4% from the 23.7 Mnkg shipped during the corresponding month last year. Cumulative exports for the 8-month period stood at 166.3 Mnkg, compared with 174.2 Mnkg recorded during the same period last year, reflecting a decline more..

Sep 23 (TM) A consortium comprising Sri Lanka renewable energy developer Vidullanka and India’s Skipper Ltd has emerged as the lowest-cost bidder for a Rs 5 billion high-voltage transmission line project in Sri Lanka. The tender, officially titled National Transmission and Distribution Network Development and Efficiency Improvement Project Package 3 (Phase ii), encompasses the construction, installation, testing, and commissioning of 132 kV transmission lines and more..

Sep 23 (FT) Ambeon Capital said it has signed a MOU with Sincere Syndication and Corporate Services LLP and Avyukthi Consulting and Advisory Services LLP to establish collaborative investment desks in Colombo and Chennai. The arrangement is designed to channel cross-border capital between SL & India across listed equities, private equity and credit, real estate and fixed income, while also supporting mergers and acquisitions and business partnerships. Parties intend the desks to act more..

Sep 23 (FT) Four years ago, SL stood at the edge of an economic abyss. Today, it stands on firmer ground, thanks to the authorities’ concerted reforms and the resilience of the SL people. As our IMF team concludes its discussions for the 7th Review of the Extended Fund Facility and this year’s Article IV consultation, the headline numbers are telling. Inflation, which shot to 70% and eroded household incomes during the crisis, more..

Sep 23 (Island) Here’s a puzzle worth thinking about. For well over a century, SL law has treated a village card game as a criminal offence, punishable by fine or imprisonment. In that same period, it has treated betting on horse racing as a perfectly legitimate, taxable business, one the state has actively collected revenue from for generations, under a Horse Racing Betting Ordinance older than most of the country’s other gambling law. Same basic activity, risking money on an uncertain more..

Sep 23 (FT) Sri Lanka needs to raise $ 1.5 billion from international capital markets in the final year of the current IMF program. This is not a rough estimate; it is built into External Financing Gap and Program Financing, 2022-27, agreed under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) in the last review. In addition to the IMF’s own $ 3 billion facility, the multilateral budget support from the World Bank and the ADB, and the 2024 debt restructuring, this is the balance funding that more..

Sep 23 (GV) There will no longer be a majority and minority; we will all be Sri Lankans. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake made this declaration during his visit to Mannar in April 2025, presenting a common Sri Lankan identity as an objective of his govt. The aspiration itself is difficult to object to. A country in which citizenship does not depend on ethnicity is a legitimate democratic ideal. But for Tamils, the important question is not whether they are Sri Lankan. more..

Sep 23 (TM) Prez Anura Kumara Dissanayake inaugurated an important shift in SL’s energy landscape in A'pura on 18 Sept. A 10 MW / 40 MW hour (h) battery energy storage system (BESS) was connected to the national grid, allowing electricity generated during periods of lower demand or higher renewable output to be stored and released later. It forms part of a wider Storex programme of 13 installations totalling 130 MW / 520 MWh. On the same day, Prez connected the five more..

Sep 23 (SO) Amid shifting political dynamics and ongoing administrative reforms, citizens across Sri Lanka are weighing State progress against the daily realities of economic survival. From public sector workers advocating municipal efficiency to small business owners grappling with steep food costs, the public pulse reflects a complex landscape of cautious optimism, political conviction, and practical frustration. more..

Sep 23 (Island) JVP core of the NPP govt makes no bones about its insatiable desire to go beyond governing the country and consolidate its grip on the state; this is something it sought to achieve through extra-parliamentary means on two previous occasions, but in vain. It is busy removing politico-legal obstacles in its path systematically in a bid to achieve its goal. It has apparently adopted the principle that the end justifies the means. 22nd Amd. drama has ended in an anti-climax. more..

Sep 23 (ST) The vendor at the Sunday fair counted his total charge from a customer standing in front of him as Rs. 2,660. As in good old days, there were no cents added to his price, which are now limited to cashless payments modes only. If you pay in cash, cents are omitted or ignored in all sorts of transactions. Customer standing near the vendor was a middle-aged lady, who used to visit the Sunday fair regularly to buy her weekly supplies of vegetables, meat items and groceries for the more..

Sep 23 (SO) For Sivarasa Anojan’s mother, the fear is almost impossible to put into words. In a video posted by activist Rajkumar Rajeevkanth, the 27-year-old’s mother is seen breaking down as she pleads for her son’s life. Surrounded by sobbing family members, she appeals to the Saudi authorities for mercy and to the SL Govt to do everything possible to bring her son home. Please spare his life, she pleads through her tears. more..

Sep 23 (CT) In time the jungle will swing once more, and then those who care for other things than wealth will wander back to the wet side of the monsoon line, and wild elephants browse where tea is now plucked, antiquaries will unearth the ancient bungalows of the British period, or even of the Scottish which will lie beneath it, and classify the different kinds of bottles found among the ruins, and arrange them in museums. Having both planted tea and arranged the antiquities in a museum, more..

Sep 23 (TM) Few things in this country deserve more pride than free education. Since it was introduced in 1945, under the reforms championed by C W W Kannangara, generations of SL children have walked into a classroom without their parents paying for the privilege. The farmer's daughter in Monaragala, the estate worker's son in Nuwara Eliya, the fisherman's child in Jaffna and the clerk's son in Colombo were all offered the same start. That promise is a large part of the reason our more..

Sep 22 (Island) What began quietly as a single-storey tourist hotel, on the edge of Katunayake-Seeduwa has, five years later, morphed into a looming five-storey cement factory and with it, a storm of fear, anger and unanswered questions. At a media briefing held on 19 Sept at St. Thomas Int'l School, Seeduwa, the community finally found its voice. Gathering included priests, school principals, environmental defenders, and parents whose children study within a few hundred metres more..

Sep 22 (DM) Cabinet approval has been granted to award a contract for the procurement of five million pre-printed polycarbonate cards required for the issuance of National Identity Cards (NICs). Approval was initially granted at the Cabinet meeting held on April 7, 2025, to commence the procurement process for pre-printed polycarbonate cards for Dept for Registration of Persons. Accordingly, bids were invited under the Int'l Competitive Bidding procedure, with eight bids submitted for the procurement. more..

Sep 22 (NW) Transport Minister Bimal Rathnayake told Parliament today that under the newly enforced seat belt law, families can install an additional seat belt in the middle of the back seat to accommodate a child when travelling as a family of five. “All we are saying is fix a seat belt for every required seat. We have no power to say only three or four people can travel in a vehicle. What matters is that every passenger has a seat belt,” more..

Sep 22 (SLN) Naval Boat Building Yard (NBBY) designed and built the country’s first waveless referee boat for rowing and canoeing events at the Navy Water Sports Centre in Diyawanna, Battaramulla. The locally built catamaran vessel was delivered to the centre in April 2026 and is currently in operational use. Constructed by the NBBY, project forms part of the Navy's Strategic Plan 2030, which focuses on self-reliance, technological advancement & local engineering capabilities. more..

Sep 22 (NW) Police opened fire at the tires of a fleeing car during a dramatic chase in Pannala on today, arresting a suspected drug trafficker and two women and seizing heroin and cash. According to police, officers from the Giriulla Police Station pursued the vehicle after receiving information about a suspected drug trafficker. The driver allegedly ignored police orders to stop and continued driving, prompting officers to fire at the car’s tires. Vehicle was eventually brought to a halt near Pannala more..

Sep 22 (NW) Govt today launched the ViYASA National Business Facilitation Centre (NBFC), a new mechanism aimed at removing administrative and regulatory bottlenecks faced by investors and entrepreneurs, with authorities expressing confidence that the initiative would help accelerate investment, industrial growth and economic transformation. Centre, established under Presidential Secretariat on a concept of Prez more..

Sep 22 (NW) Govt has taken steps to distribute 4,570 smart boards to schools across SL under several education modernization projects, PM Harini Amarasuriya told Parliament. Responding to a question raised by MP Rohini Kumari Wijerathna, PM outlined the progress of three initiatives aimed at introducing digital technology into classrooms. Under a project funded in 2024 by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, 1,000 smart boards have already been distributed to 1,000 schools. more..

Sep 22 (Island) A senior police official said that the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), inquiring into alleged loopholes and irregularities in the Aug 31 raid carried out at the Colombo Port, might seek clarification from the US Embassy here. The official said so responding to The Island query regarding the need for the SIU to get in touch with the US against the backdrop of its own admission that Senior DIG Ranmal Kodituwakku had been informed by the US Drug Enforcement Administration more..

Sep 22 (DM) SL-origin actress Bhavithra Gananathan is set to make her professional acting debut as Sita in the major arena production Diwali Story: The Journey of Ram – A Musical at OVO Arena Wembley on Sunday, (27). The 19-year-old multidisciplinary artist and university student will appear opposite Kiran Kaanan, who plays Ram, in the large-scale musical retelling of the Ramayana. The professional cast will be joined by approximately 100 community actors and dancers. more..

Sep 22 (FT) Spices and Allied Products Producers’ and Traders’ Association (SAPPTA) Chairman Ryan Rambukwella said SL’s spices industry should target $ 1 billion in export revenue at the earliest, but achieving that ambition will require a decisive shift from commodity trading towards value addition, branded products, technology, and stronger coordination across the value chain. Addressing SAPPTA’s 42nd AGM last Friday, he said the sector could not expand meaningfully if more..