Income of Rajapaksa Intanatioanal Airport in a month: USD 250

UNP MPS attaked at the AirPort

Opposition Lawmaker Dr. Harsha de Silva yesterday charged in Parliament that both Mihin Lanka as well as the controversial Mattala Mahinda Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) are failures.  He said that the Government invested over $ 300 million on MRIA but income during the past six months was Rs. 150,779 and this was mainly from Mihin.

Minster Weerawansa takes Govt to task; says Secretary to the Treasury should be in jail

Dr. P.B. Jayasundera

Dr. PB belongs in jail – Wimal

Reiterating that Secretary to the Treasury, Dr. P.B. Jayasundera, is an economic assassin who is holding the economy to ransom, Minister of Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities, Wimal Weerawansa, said the present economic agenda was leading the country towards a future mired in debt.

Sri Lanka: Geneva resolution “counter-productive”, says Ceylon Chamber

SL AMB Ravinatha at UNHRC

The resolution against Sri Lanka which was passed in Geneva on Thursday has been condemned as “counter –productive,” by the country’s most powerful business chamber.
 Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chairman Suresh Shah, speaking with the Sunday Times on the sidelines of a media briefing held to announce 175 years of doing business in Sri Lanka last Monday (before the resolution was taken up), said it was “counter-productive” to the entire reconciliation process. Highlighting it to be a “political issue”, he noted that however, looking at it from a business perspective it was “not fair.”

Sri Lanka: Busting capital expenditure myth

Consider this simple question: “Does the present government have a strong commitment to high levels of capital expenditure?” Today in Sri Lanka most analysts tend to answer this question with a confident “yes”.
That perception derives significantly from the official rhetoric. For instance, the present government’s development policy promises that “investment [will] be increased to 33-35 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) with sustained commitment [to] public investment of 6 to 7 percent of GDP” (Mahinda Chinthana Vision for the Future, Page 3).

The post war winners: urban rich or rural poor?

For some time now it has been quite clear to economists that assessments of economic performance cannot be solely focused on overall income growth, but must also take into account income distribution.This is because a growing body of research has established that where the income inequalities are large and widening it’s often the case that both economic prosperity and social stability soon suffer.

Warning: Vicious debt trap ahead!

Increasing foreign debt burden despite improved external finances

In spite of the Central Bank announcing that “Gross Official Reserves increased to US$ 7.1 billion (provisional) by end 2013″, the Government intends to borrow US$ 1.5 billion this year from international financial sources.
External finances have been improving owing to increased export earnings, large amount of workers’ remittances and higher tourist earnings.

TISL wants Heads of Parliament to appoint Select Committee to probe national socioeconomic data

Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), the national chapter of the global anti-corruption movement,has requested Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa and all the party leaders to take immediate action to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate allegations against the accuracy and genuineness of national socioeconomic data released by the two official agencies of the government, the Department of Census and Statistics and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka chambers ask for probe on official statistics

Economic downturn   Sri Lanka’s key business chambers have called for a probe on official statistics following reports on how an official was allegedly asked to boost gross domestic numbers in a court filing.
“If such doubts were to persist, it would lead to a lack of credibility on a range of published data & have serious implications on investor confidence & country ratings,” business chambers said in a joint statement.

The Bubble

Tisaranee Gunasekara
“All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned…”. - Marx and Engles (The Communist Manifesto)
 Once upon a nearly-forgotten-time, there was a corporate colossus in America called Enron. Courted by politicians and feted by the Wall Street, Enron was named ‘America’s most innovative company’ by the Fortune magazine for 6 consecutive years.

Sri Lanka: Official alleges Growth Rate massaged; 5.5 growth rate changed to 6

The Census and Statistics Department’s National Accounts Division Director H.S. Wanasinghe in a revelation made during an investigation, the report of which is now filed as a document in court and referred to in Parliament last week said the Department’s Director General had told him to inflate the economic growth rate initially computed by them to show a higher rate.

China seeks to cultivate Sri Lanka ties but without international reproach

Human rights left on the back burner

It is not often that the Chinese government criticises another nation for how it handles civil liberties, especially a country with which it has close financial and diplomatic ties. So it was curious when Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, advised Sri Lanka, a nation accused of committing war crimes, to "make efforts to protect and promote human rights".

Govt's CHOGM bill at Rs 15.8 B

VVIP vehicles line up awaiting the foreign dignitaries
at the Nelum Pokuna theatre. Pic by Hasitha Kulasekera (ST)

The government has spent a whopping Rs 15.8 billion on the recently concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), opposition charged in Parliament yesterday. Spending money of this magnitude for a meeting of this nature should have some sense of proportion where 54 Mercedes Benzes were imported for the 54 Heads of
Governments, but only 21 arrived, Colombo District United National Party (UNP) MP, Ravi Karunanayake, speaking during the budget debate said.

Sri Lanka: Repaying massive loans to China; Interests rate raised to 6.3% form 1.3%

A costly mistake?  By Gagani Weerakoon

While the government has been attracting much criticism over its excessive loan taking for various development projects, it has now come under flak from the opposition for 'incorrectly' renegotiating with China to increase a previously agreed upon interest rate of 1.3% to 6.3% on a loan of US$ 306.7 million taken for the Hambantota Port Project.

Sri Lanka: Post-war development myth of the war-zone: only 9% has regular aincome; monthly income of 43 %US $ 43

Beneath a veneer of development, reflected in this newly laid railtrack, Sri Lanka's former war-zone is plagued by poverty, debt and lack of jobs. Credit: Amantha Perera/IP

Dwindling Aid Slows Sri Lanka by  Amantha Perera  

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka , Nov 7 2013 (IPS) - When the first trains in almost two and a half decades started running through this war-ravaged town in Sri Lanka in mid-September, Sinngamuththu Jesudasan could not resist the temptation to go and have a look – repeatedly.

Sri Lanka: Annual tax concessions to global gaming giant, James Packer, will be more than the annual health and education budgets

Dr. Harsha de Silva

Packer’s package bigger than health budget 
The annual tax concessions running into more than Rs 120 billion that the government will be giving to global gaming giant, James Packer, for the proposed 35-40-storeyed casino complex, will be more than the annual health and education budgets, an opposition legislator charged.

Bribery and corruption: Reveal the names, Minister Sirisena

Minister says he Tobaco industry tried to bribe

Editorial Ceylon Today 
The battle against the butt it appears has now entered the realms of whodunit, with the Minister of Health, Maithripala Sirisena, introducing a subornment element to the saga of pictorial warnings on cigarette packets. Days after the Supreme Court issued a stay order halting the implementation of a special gazette notification, which would have made it mandatory for cigarette-manufacturing companies to print pictorial warnings covering 80% of the principal display area of each packet of cigarettes, he dropped a bombshell, alleging that the ‘tobacco industry’ tried to bribe him into blocking the said gazette notification.

Sri Lanka: Massive rise in pawning for want of money

The amount of money obtained by the public, who throng gold jewellery pawning centres at commercial banks and financial institutes, in the first five months of this year, aggregates to a whopping Rs 633 billion, Parliament was told yesterday.

Norway to provide GSP+ to Sri Lanka

CCC to discuss Sri Lanka’s eligibility for Norway’s GSP+ 
Since January 1st this year Sri Lanka has become eligible to the new Generalized System of Preference plus (GSP+) facility introduced by the Government of Norway and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) has invited members to learn more about the facility.

Merry fiddling while the country burns

This week’s dire warning by the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) that Sri Lanka’s public and state banking sector would collapse if loss-making public bodies are not made duly accountable deserves immediate and imperative public attention.

UK investors wary of coming to SL

The impeachment of the former Chief Justice, the taking over of the underperforming companies by the government, matters dealing with land ownership and lackadaisical legal system are seen as 'threats' by the UK investors to doing business in Sri Lanka, Deputy British High Commissioner in Colombo, Robbie Buloch, said in an exclusive interview with Ceylon Today. "This is the reason why there is no UK businesses flooding Sri Lanka as expected after the war," he added.