Nov 11 (CT) Among the proposals in Budget 2018 which Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera presented in Parliament on Wednesday was the partial privatization of Bank of Ceylon (BoC) and People's Bank (PB) which together are responsible for 50% of total lending in the market. This is a sound economic move for the Govt to make for the good of the larger economy. This proposal if implemented would help infuse much needed capital to these banks to be compliant with Basel 3 capital requirements more..

Nov 11 (FT) Latha Walpola, the greatest living legend of playback singing behind the Sinhala silver screen, the golden voice ever created with the Deshamanya title, the second highest National Award, completes 70 years this year 2017 in her career in singing. This is a remarkable milestone in her life arguably as the longest living legend. The most appropriate time to publish this article is her 83rd birthday which falls today, 11 Nov. Latha was born on 11 Nov, 1934 more..

Nov 11 (DM) Latest Budget proposals might trigger price increases of some motor vehicles including Aqua, Axio, Premio, Allion, Prado, Toyota Prius (Hybrid) while the prices of some might decrease, SL Vehicle Importers’ Association President Indika Sampath Merinchige said. Budget 2018 had suggested calculating levies of vehicles on a unit duty basis except for Freezer Truck vehicles. “The prices of Toyota Axio, Toyota Aqua, Honda Vezel and Honda Grace will increase by Rs.750, 000 more..

Nov 11 (RR) Perched on a skinny spit of land between the Indian Ocean and the lush jungles of Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park is a prime example of an entirely new generation of luxury tented camps. Opened early this month, Wild Coast Tented Lodge eschews traditional breezy, safari-style accommodations, instead featuring 28 otherworldly tented cocoon suites—each boasting vaulted ceilings and double-height glass façades that offer panoramic views of the jungle outside. more..

Nov 11 (ST) No changes will be made to the traffic fine system and the Gazette pertaining to three-wheeler safety despite protest by unions, the National Council for Road Safety said. The Council’s Chairman Sisira Kodagoda said the regulations were now with the Legal Draftsman Department and would be submitted to Parliament after they are approved. Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara told there would be no changes in the proposed regulations. more..

Nov 11 (ST) A man injured in a freak accident, which saw a branch pierce his face, was operated on by a team of doctors at the Chilaw hospital on Thursday. The man who had been cutting branches had slipped and fallen onto another tree and a branch had pierced his face. The 45-year-old man, N. Jayantha, had been rushed to the hospital with the part of the branch by villagers. A team of 30 doctors assisted in the operation to remove the branch, more..

Nov 11 (ST) It’s the migratory season for our feathered friends and the public are urged once again to show a little kindness to these winter visitors who are exhausted after their long migratory flight. During the past few days many exhausted Indian Pittas (avichchiya) have been sighted in various parts of the country. In their exhausted state these birds could become easy prey to crows and domesticated cats and dogs. Almost half of the bird species found in Sri Lanka are migratory. more..

Nov 11 (DN) Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday cleared any doubts on the newly imposed Debt Repayment Levy. He reiterated that the said levy must be borne by the banks and could not be passed on to the consumer. While recapping on his budgetary proposals for 2018, Minister Samaraweera termed the Debt Repayment Levy of Rs. 2 per Rs 10,000 on all cash transactions for three years from April 1, 2018 as the Medamulana Tax. more..

Nov 11 (DN) Prof. Sarath Wijesuriya has distorted the vision and mission of late Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera to fulfill NGO requirements, National Sangha Council President Ven. Pahiyangala Ananda Sagara Thera said. Addressing a press conference yesterday he said that Prof. Wijesuriya tried his best to cover up the Central Bank Bond issue while delivering his speech at late Sobitha Thera’s second commemoration held recently. more..

Nov 11 (EN) The govt’s decision to impose a tax on sugar content on beverages is likely to affect the profitability of listed companies selling sweetened drinks. The govt’s 2018 budget proposed to introduce an excise duty of 50 cents per gram of sugar contained in beverages with effect from midnight the same day. The new tax will hit food and beverage sector companies like Ceylon Cold Stores, Nestlé Lanka, and Cargills which make and sell soft drinks. more..

Nov 17 (AO) Deposed ruling party leader and former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has hit-back at claims made by a senior government lawmaker alleging that the Sri Lanka government was helping the opposition in its ongoing efforts to overthrow the govt. Ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) lawmaker Riyaz Rasheed during a press conference on Wednesday alleged that the Sri Lanka govt was backing the opposition to orchestrate a coup in the Maldives. more..

Nov 11 (FT) Govt of Sri Lanka appointed Kim Im-kweon as the new Honorary Consul of Sri Lanka in Busan with effect from 30 Oct.  Commission of Appointment issued by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Tilak Marapana and the Exequatur issued by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea Kang Kyung-wha were handed over to Kim Im-kwoen by SL’s Ambassador in the Republic of Korea Manisha Gunasekera on Nov 8 Nov at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Seoul.  more..

Nov 11 (LBO) Central Bank says that on yearly basis Land Price Index for the period ending June 2017 has increased 12.6%, continuing the recent trend in land price movements in the Colombo district. All three sub-indices of the index (Residential 11.9%, Commercial 11.6% and Industrial 14.6%) have contributed to this increase. In order to monitor the developments in the real estate sector, CB has been compiling and analyzing several indicators. more..

Nov 11 (Island) Minister Arjuna Ranatunga said that he didn’t know whether he would be able to hold the portfolio for another three months and his only wish was to see the completion of the repairs to the Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery before that. He said the repair to the refinery would be a blow to the agents who imported fuel. Ranatunga said it was better to go home after doing the right thing than acting against his conscience to retain the ministerial post. more..

Nov 11 (NR) Ministry of Petroleum has said the country now had fuel stocks sufficient for the next 12 days. Secretary to the Ministry Upali Marasinghe said that a further fuel tanker is due to arrive in the country next Friday. Furthermore, another oil tanker belonging to the LIOC is due to arrive in the country today as well. He said since sufficient stocks of fuel have been distributed across the country, motorists should not be faced with a fuel shortage anymore. more..

Nov 11 (NR) Minister of Megapolis and Western Development Champika Ranawaka says each individual will have to bear a debt of 100,000 rupees by next year. He said the debt which needs to be paid next year does not relate to the loans obtained for development. He said a majority of people say that the govt has taken a lot of loans but has failed to develop the country. However, he said the govt has to pay a large amount of debt totalling to 1970 billion rupees. more..

Nov 11 (DN) 2,500 Uda Gammanas will be set up by 2020, said Housing and Construction Minister Sajith Premadasa. He was addressing the gathering at the opening of the Siythuru Gama Uda Gammana at Lunugamvehera, recently. The minister opened the 46th Uda Gammana in Lunugamwehera which consists of all basic facilities including water, electricity and other infrastructure facilities. Minister added that he was glad that former Suriyawewa Pradeshiya Sabha Deputy Chairman, more..

Nov 11 (PTI) Four batsmen scored half-centuries to take SL to 411 for six on day one of their two-day warm-up against Board President's XI here today. Sadeera Samarawickrama geared up for a potential opening slot with a stroke-filled 74 off 77 balls and shared a 133-run stand with Dimuth Karunaratne (50 retired) as Sri Lanka declared at the end of day's play after being put in to bat by Board President's skipper Sanju Samson. Niroshan Dickwella, who retired on 53, more..

Nov 11 (AP) Sri Lanka’s govt faced increasing pressure Friday to answer for alleged human rights violations following an Associated Press investigation that found more than 50 men who said they were raped, branded or tortured as recently as this year. The men’s anguished descriptions of their abuses come nearly a decade after Sri Lanka’s civil war ended and days ahead of a review of the Indian Ocean nation by the U.N.’s top human rights body. more..

Nov 12 (SO) Poorer Sri Lankans on tenterhooks over possible living cost hikes are breathing easier, while big spenders must resign themselves to a slightly higher cost of lifestyle after Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s maiden Budget announcements, last week. Clearly, National Unity Govt’s third annual Budget aims to deal with our immense economic challenges gradually, rather than with strong doses of the bitter medicine of all-round tax burdens and a rake-off on profits. more..

Nov 12 (CT) State Minister Eran Wickramaratne's statement, at a post budget seminar, that though the Govt plans to expand taxpayer-funded State sector tertiary medical education by establishing three new medical faculties, that in no way devalues the importance Govt places on private sector tertiary education in medicine, would have been welcome news to parents and children, where the latter have been deprived of pursuing their higher studies in medicine due to the district quota system more..

Nov 12 (SO) Last week, Sri Lankans woke up to a revelation that the mere rumour or news of a petrol shortage could spread panic and wreak havoc, like a maniac at the wheel of an over-speeding vehicle. The actual petrol shortage, when it came, sent the masses into a spin. Filling stations had queues that would have made the popular dansals green with envy. Curses poured freely from the hysteric masses returning more..

Nov 12 (Island) Minister Malik Samarawickrama, speaking at a post-budget forum, the well known firm of accountants, recalled that he was working for Shaw Wallace and Hedges when the J.R. Jayewardene Govt of 1977 was swept into power by an unprecedented tidal wave of support. That gave Jayewardene’s UNP a five sixth majority in Parliament and ejected the country’s old left, highly reputed in pre and post-Independence politics of then Ceylon, out of the legislature altogether. more..

Nov 12 (ST) The petrol crisis was something the Finance Minister could have done without as a forerunner to what he famously called his designer Budget. The shortages hit all parts of the country throwing grave doubts over the management skills of the Govt. When SL’s economy was in the doldrums in the 1970s, it was referred to as ship-to-mouth existence i.e. the economy had freight exchange and the people had food only when a ship arrived at the Colombo port. more..

Nov 12 (SO) The govt is committed to implement all programs in the 2018 Budget despite the enormous state debt to be repayed this year, State Finance Minister Eran Wickremaratne said rejecting claims by the opposition to the contrary. In an interview after Minister Mangala Samaraweera presented his maiden Budget in parliament, he said “We will definitely meet our debt obligations, even though they are enormous.” more..

Nov 12 (ST) My dear Mangala, I thought I must write to you because you are in the news these days after delivering your mangala - or maiden – budget this week. I’m sure there will be enough pundits who will analyse the pros and cons of the Budget in the days to come, but congratulations anyway for doing what is a thankless job. Mangala, it must have felt great to follow in the footsteps of people like JR, NM and Ronnie although there have been some less illustrious predecessors of late as well. more..

Nov 12 (ST) Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera stuck to his promise to keep his maiden Budget clean, lean and green by presenting a no-frills Budget, at the heart of which is an environmentally sustainable development strategy. The Budget came at a time when the country was reeling under a petrol shortage, enabling lawmakers of the JO Group to add some colour to Budget Day, by cycling to the Legislature. With former President, now MP Mahinda Rajapaksa in the lead, more..

Nov 12 (Island) Banning of the Lanka e News website indicates a new development in the internal politics of the yahapalana coalition govt. Lanka e News is foremost among the website that worked to bring Maithripala Sirisena into power. What distinguished Lanka e News from the other websites that also were on the offensive against the Rajapaksa govt was that after the yahapalana govt came into power it functioned almost like the party paper of the UNP whereas the other websites more..

Nov 12 (Island) Can Dinesh Chandimal record Sri Lanka’s maiden Test win in India remains the question in all cricket fans’ minds. Before him, many Sri Lankan captains like Bandula Warnapura, Duleep Mendis, Arjuna Ranatunga, Marvan Atapattu and Kumar Sangakkara have tried and failed. India remains Sri Lanka’s impregnable final frontier. In fact, Sri Lanka’s record in India is awful. Of the 17 matches they have played in India, seven have been drawn and ten have ended in defeats. more..

Nov 12 (CT) Clad in a carefully chosen blue and green tie, Minister Mangala Samaraweera entered the Chamber at 3.05p.m. on Thursday to present Budget 2018, which was themed, Blue-Green Budget; Launch of Enterprise Sri Lanka. "It is Blue because we plan to integrate the full economic potential of ocean related activities in formulating the overall growth strategy. It is Green because we build our economy on an environmentally more..

Nov 12 (SO) SAITM issues came to some conclusion after a heated week on the coals, with most protesting parties finding peace with the govt’s plans to abolish the institution and to transfer the private medical college to a not-for-profit institution. Deputy Minister Harsha De Silva’s intervention with parents of state medical faculty students who were on a hunger strike was successful as he gave assurances that appeased them. With that the student unions called off their protest more..

Nov 12 (ST) Rather than allocating endless sums of money to provide aimless jobs, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera has followed his instinct and global trends: Creating opportunities for young people. While he may have not kept his word in making the shortest-ever budget speech in Sri Lankan history – speaking for over 120 minutes against a planned 90 minutes — the former designer has fashioned a budget that is more about creating opportunities than offering handouts. more..

Nov 12 (CT) If you are an animal lover and support animal conservation you would definitely love to release a baby turtle from a hatchery and watch as it slowly and eagerly crawls towards the sea – to freedom. But what many of us fail to understand is that most of the turtle hatcheries that operate along the Southern Coast are not interested in turtle conservation as they claim, but only in the money that they get by charging more..

Nov 12 (Island) The third yahapalana budget was presented in parliament and there does not seem to be anything positive that can be said about it. It was the AFP Correspondent in this country who pointed out at the press briefing held afterwards by the Minister of Finance that the reduction in the tax for electric vehicles cannot be implemented on the ground because it applies only to new electric cars which are apparently not exported to Sri Lanka by their manufacturers because more..

Nov 12 (Island) Having tendered his resignation as the Head Coach of Bangladesh, former opener Chandika Hathurusingha is said to be chatting to his confidants both in Australia and Sri Lanka about taking over the Sri Lankan job. Hathurusingha lives in Sydney having migrated to Australia after a bitter row with the D.S. de Silva – Nishantha Ranatunga administration that sacked him seven years ago. Hathurusingha in 2010 was making steady progress as understudy to Trevor Bayliss more..

Nov 12 (ST) SLC will soon have a full-time head coach, and with Chandika Hathurusingha resigning from the Bangladesh Cricket Board, there is optimism that the 49-year-old will land the job here. There is no official intimation with regard to his appointment but the local board is waiting for his release by the current employer to seal the appointment. If all goes well, Hathurusingha should be here in time to take the team to more..

Nov 12 (DM) JVP MP Sunil Hadunnetti said yesterday that beer consumption had been promoted with the Budget reducing taxes on beer and by removing the production tax on a can of beer. He said the government had increased the tax on the sugar content in soft drinks to discourage consumption of soft drinks while reducing the tax on beer which also contains a high sugar content. "A beer factory uses about 300 bags of sugar daily for the production of beer," the MP said. more..