tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33371005796712521752023-11-16T03:55:32.737-08:00LankalightnewsNews & Views from Sri Lanka & Rest of The WorldLutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.comBlogger804125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-39365563555088665422018-06-01T19:55:00.002-07:002018-06-01T19:55:20.451-07:00Perpetuity of the forgetfully crooked<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"A man must get a thing before he can forget it." — Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are we now in a world where forgetfulness is the in thing, especially in politics and governance?</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Freedom of Forgetfulness came to light some months ago at the unravelling of the Perpetual Scandal on the Central Bank Bond Scams, when no less that a former Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs, Ravi Karunanayake – admitted he could not remember getting paid millions for a Penthouse rent – from whom and how. Of course, there is evidence the millions came from Perpetual Treasuries or one of its associates. It is certainly an Aloysian Perpetuity.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLpZUAJm5JpTYiGWJ16z1ASsfHq2P_if3OJEF-hAB397FL8OvvzQgVJpw4SDCFT5o6ZMA8v20FGn9ObZzOgNH6pXYuu5yV0wR5q4jLiuS8eHZibkvP9n_60a-kZrhMyYyT6ZJpcohcnyWQ/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="225" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLpZUAJm5JpTYiGWJ16z1ASsfHq2P_if3OJEF-hAB397FL8OvvzQgVJpw4SDCFT5o6ZMA8v20FGn9ObZzOgNH6pXYuu5yV0wR5q4jLiuS8eHZibkvP9n_60a-kZrhMyYyT6ZJpcohcnyWQ/s400/Capture.PNG" width="191" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>The Island</i></span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That was a new height in the politics of the crooked. He will be remembered as the 'Ever Forgetful Ravi' – The Man with the Mathakayata Thitha, nothing to do with that 'Mathata Thitha’ propaganda line of the power drunk Rajapaksas.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Forgetfulness is a form of freedom." – Kahlil Gibran</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We now have another of the politically forgetful. The former Sports Minister, Dayasiri Jayasekera, well known for his political long jumping from the UNP in Opposition, to the SLFP in Government, and some time later to the Maithripala Sirisena- led Unity Government of Yahapalanaya. He is certainly one of the great forgetful, who gets a cheque for a million rupees, doesn’t know, can’t remember, whether it was a cash or crossed cheque, had it cashed by an employee, and quite proudly says he spent it on election campaigning. He too got this from Arjun Aloysius of Perpetual crookedness.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The catch in this mastery of forgetfulness is there is no record of such expenditure at the polls. Was it used to buy votes – which is corrupt, or to give drinks – milk or booze to those who came for one’s meetings? To transport voters to his meetings or the larger meetings of his party, the SLFP? Was it used to give scholarships to children of voters? Was it used to bribe officials? Total silence. The million rupee politico says it is common for candidates at elections to get such payments, contributions. Not a word about bribes, crooked payments, or political purchases.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Dayasiri Jayasekera, now seated in the Opposition benches in parliament, says he did nothing to support Arjun Aloysius on the bond scam probe. It is not so easy to believe that a politician who gets money, a million at that, does not support the donor. But it certainly taints those 16 independent benchers in the Opposition. That is just by the way.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And we now have our only Field Marshal – none other than the former Army Commander, now Minister Sarath Fonseka, say he also received one lakh – a hundred thousand – from the same Aloysius – which by the way means a Famed Warrior. Did Arjun Aloysius give the one lakh because of the warrior fame of Sarath Fonseka, which fame sent him to prison under the Rajapaksa Regime? We know nothing on that. But, Sarath Fonseka says he did not use the lakh, but game it to two other candidates in the last General Election. What a fine and crooked political donation!</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a foul political pattern emerging from these Perpetual-Aloysian contributions for Penthouse rents and electoral candidates, all politicians. It crosses party lines – Ravi Forgetful from the UNP; Dayasiri Forgetful - from the UNP – Sarath Fonseka Forgetful – contested from the Democratic Party, lost and came to the UNP National List. This perpetual money has a way of loading the already loaded.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now we are told there are 118 others who have received this politically loaded money of the corrupt. Our parliament has 225 members - this 118 plus three (those who have already received perpetual cash) if in the House, means we have more than half of MPs Perpetual-Aloysius bound – with many more millions.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If those 118 names are revealed - and why not – can we hope to have a clean parliament any time in the approaching future? This looks like being a perpetual problem.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders." - Friedrich Nietzsche</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The politics of forgetfulness is bad enough in the cash flow from the perpetual sources. But it looks like this forgetful trend – the Amathaka Nemma – is making its way into other areas of politics and governance too. President Sirisena has forgotten the 100-day programme of his own manifesto. He must have good reasons to oppose his coalition leader – Ranil Wickremesinghe. But he has wholly forgotten that he pledged to appoint him Prime Minister, once the Common Candidate won. And, the late Ven. Sobitha Thera was alike when that manifesto was releases. Is he moving to a different wave of the perpetual forgetfulness, not about millions, but about power?</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Forgetfulness is clearly the name of the game – the Political Game. It is the big game of governance in Sri Lanka, underscoring the crookedness of both politics and governance.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are moving on to the Perpetuity of the Forgetfully Crooked in Politics and Government.</span></i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-63395664676820579232018-05-26T18:25:00.003-07:002018-05-26T18:26:39.597-07:00As sole beneficiary, Gammanpila forged Power of Attorney document: Witness<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAcmbjxxyYsuvuollME1B1WKeMNRvCrmVyMo1HMMSv_Qqj4g74lrjqmqAdab9N-VOYXdAmGFRCu8ko44rVH05mvQjJSJQv5phxMLSKpTwzVp5zho0YlH4fOEPvwdIvTf2AYPOEVddf8qwF/s1600/Capture.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="400" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAcmbjxxyYsuvuollME1B1WKeMNRvCrmVyMo1HMMSv_Qqj4g74lrjqmqAdab9N-VOYXdAmGFRCu8ko44rVH05mvQjJSJQv5phxMLSKpTwzVp5zho0YlH4fOEPvwdIvTf2AYPOEVddf8qwF/s400/Capture.GIF" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">The accused, MP Udaya Gammanpila, <br />is seen leaving court with his lawyer.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">An Australian businessman’s wife told the Colombo High Court (CHC) on Friday that, one has to make the assumption that the allegedly fraudulent document executing a Power of Attorney (PoA) to Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) Leader and MP Udaya Gammanpila, had been written by him, as the only person to benefit from such a document was Mr Gammanpila.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></span>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the case was taken up before CHC Judge A.A.R. Heiyanthuduwa, Janet Elizabeth Shaddick (69), wife of Australian businessman Brian Shaddick, made the statement during cross-examination in connection with an indictment filed against MP Gammanpila and Sydney Jayasinghe.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Attorney General’s (AG) Dept had filed the indictments against the two accused for allegedly misappropriating Rs 21 million, following an allegedly fraudulent Share transaction that took place between September 26, 1996 and October 23, 1997. The AG further charged that the alleged business transaction had taken place using a fraudulent PoA to sell Shares belonging to Brian Shaddick.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">During cross-examination by Defence Counsel Shavindra Fernando P.C., Mrs Shaddick was questioned as to how she knows that the allegedly fraudulent PoA given to Udaya Gammanpila, to sell Shares of the company Digital Nominees, was written by the 2nd Respondent, Mr Gammanpila. The witness answered that, one has to make that assumption, as he is the only one to benefit from such a document. She further said she never placed her signature to such a document and that, her signature had been forged. She also said she recognised the handwriting in the allegedly fraudulent document as belonging to Udaya Gammanpila, based on a fax she had earlier received in his handwriting.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Defence Counsel questioned the witness as to what evidence she possessed, other than the evidence of her and her husband, to prove the accused had stolen even one cent. Mrs Shaddick said she was only a witness, that she did not bring the case to court and that, she believes the evidence is in the hands of the police. Defence Counsel put it to the witness that the reason she could not produce a single piece of evidence was because there was none. The witness said she hadn’t brought any evidence with her, as she was a witness, and it was for the Prosecution to decide on bringing evidence against the accused.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The witness claimed she was dumbfounded seeing her signature on the document shown to her by the Sri Lanka Police in 2015 and that, she and her husband had no idea that Udaya Gammanpila had taken all the Shares of their company Digital Nominees and sold them, using the fraudulent PoA document.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Defence Counsel pointed out that, when her husband, Brian Shaddick, gave evidence on an earlier occasion, he had stated that, as a habit, he and his wife had placed each others signatures on documents. The witness said that she did not accept that statement, adding that, her husband should not have been in court to give evidence in the first place, as he was ill at the time and was on medication.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Defence Counsel accused her of giving false evidence to the court. The witness denied the charge, stating she had no reason to lie.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris with Senior State Counsel Nayana Seneviratne appeared for the AG.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jayantha Weerasinghe P.C. with Shavindra Fernando P.C. and Senior Counsel Nalinda Indatissa appeared for the accused.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Further trial was fixed for June 19.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">SUNDAY TIMES</span></b></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-65903538146474680762018-05-20T19:08:00.002-07:002018-05-20T19:08:42.042-07:00Sri Lanka world’s sixth best performing wealth market<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9nM5IM08yp6-HdSEVjNYAcSQC7pDkN8WaOaNIcZe9buhT4wLh7HuMl2zZtF-MYilo16zD_n24Cck4zwv7sB-p2zQOwloAkTtJt4WXXbrl1JN_Aq82dv4VvOimwgqxXyvCSfuMigJ1g0sE/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="747" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9nM5IM08yp6-HdSEVjNYAcSQC7pDkN8WaOaNIcZe9buhT4wLh7HuMl2zZtF-MYilo16zD_n24Cck4zwv7sB-p2zQOwloAkTtJt4WXXbrl1JN_Aq82dv4VvOimwgqxXyvCSfuMigJ1g0sE/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: arial !important; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>Sri Lanka has been ranked as the sixth best performing wealth market for 2016-2017 in the world by a specialist firm, the AfrAsia Bank, in its Global Wealth Migration Review. </i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: arial !important; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>It said global wealth rose by 12% in 2017 (from $ 192 trillion at the end of 2016 to $ 215 trillion at the end of 2017). </i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: arial !important; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>Sri Lanka’s growth was put at 20% a figure shared by Mauritius, Poland and Vietnam. India with 25% growth ranked first whilst China with 22% was at number three. Sri Lanka was also ranked at number six in terms of best performing wealth markets for a decade, 2007-2017, with a 133% gain. Vietnam led this ranking with 210% followed by China with 198%.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: arial !important; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>The report said global wealth has risen by 27% over the past 10 years (from $ 169 trillion at the end of 2007 to $ 215 trillion at the end of 2017), assisted by strong wealth growth in Asia. </i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: arial !important; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>It said global wealth is expected to rise by 50% over the next decade, reaching $ 321 trillion by 2027. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />This will again be driven by strong growth in Asia. </i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: arial !important; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>In its report, available at www.afrasiabank.com, Sri Lanka has been identified as one of the fastest growth wealth markets going forward. Its description of Sri Lanka is as follows: Safe country, good educational standard and English speaking. Should benefit from strong growth in the local technology, manufacturing, real estate, healthcare and financial services sectors.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: arial !important; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>Other growth markets include India, Vietnam, China and Mauritius. </i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: arial !important; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>The 10 wealthiest countries in the world by total wealth held were the US, China, Japan, the UK, Germany, India, France, Canada, Australia and Italy.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: arial !important; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>Daily FT </i></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-28235930988240332192018-05-20T18:53:00.000-07:002018-05-20T18:53:06.757-07:00A shipload of coal finds its way into sea etc. annually<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFSmI9tD9_Ndg8ffXjKycWTvVYhtvSaKhfc_EzSQtNhXSPgjN-UMoKgtDwCU0M9Z-pie_LeRcK6_g4_8QIHQ2FmX1H5S7hBvW1xh6YhcbzdH9YrBFWQhW_EAdpgatNufwuwrsZX7k_Rajn/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFSmI9tD9_Ndg8ffXjKycWTvVYhtvSaKhfc_EzSQtNhXSPgjN-UMoKgtDwCU0M9Z-pie_LeRcK6_g4_8QIHQ2FmX1H5S7hBvW1xh6YhcbzdH9YrBFWQhW_EAdpgatNufwuwrsZX7k_Rajn/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">By Rathindra Kuruwita - The Island</span></b></div>
<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More than 67,000 tonnes of coal find their way into the ocean annually and this is equal to one ship load, the Coalition Against Coal (CAC) says.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Of this amount, about 17,000 tonnes are lost due to spillage during unloading from ship to barge. It is common for coal pieces to reach beaches in areas such as Kalpitiya," CAC said in a report titled Norochcholai Coal Power Plant – A summary of Social and Environmental Issues.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is estimated that another 50,000 tonnes are blown into the ocean and the nearby villages due to strong winds in the region. Currently, the South African coal purchased by CEB has a very large amount of dust particles and it is estimated that coal piles in Norochcholai has over 35% dust (particles less than 2mm).</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maithri Gunaratne, former Chairman of Lanka Coal, said that a significant amount of coal was lost during barging and due to strong winds. "We import around 2.3 million tonnes of coal annually and we lose considerable amounts during barging and due to winds. The loss to winds has actually increased in recent times as we have started importing lower quality coal. I can’t confirm whether that the loss is 67,000 tonnes. But I can assure that the loss is significant."</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Executive Director of CaFFE Keerthi Tennakoon said that attempts to address the issue had been thwarted by senior Ministry officials for reasons better known to them. "There were proposals to make the unloading process more efficient and to cover the Coal yard. But these were stopped by officials who still control the Ministry of Power."</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A spokesperson for CAC said that the data had been obtained from an Auditor’s General’s Report in 2015 and that audit reports were not available post 2015. He added that the losses were now higher since the CEB purchased South African coal, which had higher concentrations of dust. "The scale at the unloading belt seems to be always broken," he said.</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The report adds that the area in which coal is stored was extended in 2017/18 and is closer to the nearby village. The coal yard can store 1.3 million tonnes of coal. "At present coal yard is 360m x 450m area, and coal is stacked up to 16m high. It is noted that there is no provision in the coal yard to prevent leachate, liquid that drains or ‘leaches’ from a landfill, of coal dust to ground water from the sides of the yard, especially the side facing the village. This leachate will add toxicity to the groundwater."</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></i>
<div style="line-height: 18px; margin-left: 5px; padding: 2px 2px 0px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">President of the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers Union (CEBEU), Saumya Kumarawadu denied these allegations. He said they had fulfilled all environmental regulations. "We have taken all necessary precautions. Mostly these allegations are leveled by NGOs. There is a lot of clamouring about the plant’s environmental protection licence (EPL) having expired, but what happened was that a NGO filed a case and the renewal of the licence has been delayed until the court goes through our evidence."</span></i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-36489067090264723322018-05-20T18:33:00.002-07:002018-05-20T18:33:16.778-07:00Mangala takes MR to task over foreign debt payment statement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-6deg6ICaXnV4c3H17oUomqWLdrdvF66I7NDU5OEtI1Zk-gXgKDxz54eqjTMNMSPUbot4VCKzq7wZe5pQhcCDMNucUWgelffsYx7GYDa7Z8MiFJqFsZd9TZqVDbctGFjbuxWndTvil01R/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="600" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-6deg6ICaXnV4c3H17oUomqWLdrdvF66I7NDU5OEtI1Zk-gXgKDxz54eqjTMNMSPUbot4VCKzq7wZe5pQhcCDMNucUWgelffsYx7GYDa7Z8MiFJqFsZd9TZqVDbctGFjbuxWndTvil01R/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday took former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to task for alleging that the foreign debt payments due in 2019 is a result of the doings of the present government.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Minister Samaraweera contradicting Rajapaksa’s claim, pointed out that 77% of the USD 4,285 mn foreign debts which is due in 2019 was debt obtained during the tenure of the Rajapaksa regime.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Minister Samaraweera also observed that 48% of the total foreign debt obtained after 2015 have been used to repay the debts that were borrowed by the Rajapaksa regime.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to Minister Samaraweera, the loan installment to be paid in 2019 includes US$ 1,000 million which was obtained on January 6, 2014 at 6% interest to be paid within five years and, a US$ 500 million obtained on April 7, 2014 at 5.1% interest to be paid within five years.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“These two loans amounting to US$ 1,500 million that have been been obtained at commercial rates will mature in 2019 and the entire loan should be repaid in bulk with full interest at one stretch,” the minister explained.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The Mahinda Rajapaksa regime obtained these loans in a hurry in 2014, not for development work but for the election where they lured unsuspected voters thereby distributing cheap items such as Sil Redi, the statement pointed out.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Minister Samaraweera in his special communiqué yesterday stated that “After Independence in 1948, the highest amount of foreign debt has to be paid in 2018.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The total foreign debt to be paid this year is US$ 2,845 million and of which US$ 1,789 million has to be paid for foreign debts which were borrowed before the year 2015. Only an installment of US$ 1,056 is to be paid for the foreign loans borrowed after 2015. Accordingly, 63% debt installments to be paid this year are repayments of debts that had been borrowed during Mr. Rajapaksa’s tenure as finance minister. It was at the level of 75% in 2017.”</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Minister Samaraweera also pointed out that US$3,768 million will have to be paid as loan installments and the interest in 2020 and of which 77% or US$2,905 million is the debts that were borrowed before 2015. He also revealed that only US$ 863 million have to be paid for the debt that was borrowed after 2015.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;">‘Soon after this Government came to power, it pledged the public servants to increase their salaries by 10,000 rupees because their salary was not increased by at least one cent since 2006. This Rs. 10,000.00 increment has been transformed according to 1.4 scale thereby the salary of all public servants will be increased by 107 percent in 2020 to that of their salaries in 2014’</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“In 2021, 83% of the foreign debt installments will have to be paid to repay the debt taken before 2015. In addition, even in 2030, 73% of the repayments will go to pay the debts that were obtained during Rajapaksa regime for the waste, fraud and corruption committed by the oligarchies of the Rajapaksas.” Minister Samaraweera in his statement further said.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Minister Samaraweera also stated that the present government has obtained foreign debts of US$ 12 billion during the last three years and, 6 billion out of which was from International donor agencies and under bilateral agreements at concessionary interest rates.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“They have been spent for various projects. These loans were taken neither under commercial basis nor for consumer purposes as Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa attempts to interpret,” he pointed out.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>With input from Daily News Reports by </b></span><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Amali Mallawaarachchi</span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-23777641334598306712018-05-20T07:33:00.003-07:002018-05-20T07:33:48.083-07:00ADB gives US$453mn for Sri Lanka’s Mahaweli water security investment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxwmfPckT_6D57tORWONeZu1My6ppGljuS7SEJbzDZ7AYrTqqrrIxXt7eZJ7OeAxx0FjO15NddqOyE3urXDFIsouXXRrbAp1M3OTyy5weCkBE7PrKloIUSoDIX-YAp4ItnfKMu8PlyIi5y/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="593" data-original-width="720" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxwmfPckT_6D57tORWONeZu1My6ppGljuS7SEJbzDZ7AYrTqqrrIxXt7eZJ7OeAxx0FjO15NddqOyE3urXDFIsouXXRrbAp1M3OTyy5weCkBE7PrKloIUSoDIX-YAp4ItnfKMu8PlyIi5y/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">ECONOMYNEXT – </span></b><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is giving Sri Lanka a loan of US$453 million to fund the second phase of a project providing irrigation and drinking water from the island’s main Mahaweli river.</span></i></span><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The funds will be used to build storage reservoirs, canals and tunnels to divert river water for thousands of farmer families and provide safe drinking water for people living in areas affected by Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The Mahaweli Water Security Investment Program is one of the major ongoing investment program currently being implemented under the loan assistance of the ADB, the finance ministry’s Department of External Resources said in a statement. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The total investment cost of this program is $675 million of which $453 million will be provided by ADB under Multi - tranche Financing Facility (MFF). </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The government of Sri Lanka has already signed two loan agreements with ADB to obtain $150 million to finance the first tranche of the programme. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Three major investment projects; Upper Elahera Canal Project, North Western Province Canal Project, Minipe Left Bank Canal Rehabilitation Project will be implemented under the investment program. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">“The construction of new and improved water conveyance and storage infrastructure under this program will increase the productivity of agricultural lands in the North Western, North Central and Central Provinces,” the statement said. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The project involves constructions of 158 km canals and 38 km of tunnels and two new reservoirs with storage capacity of 36 MCM (Million Cubic Meters) as well as rehabilitation of the 74 km Minipe Left Bank Canal. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The statement said 25,000 farmer families under Upper Elahera Canal Project, 40,000 farmer families under North Western Province Canal Project and 15,000 farmer families under Minipe Left Bank Canal Rehabilitation Project will directly benefit from the program. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The proposed second tranche will fund partial construction of 28 km of tunnels on the 62 km conveyance canal linking the Moragahakanda and Hurluwewa reservoirs and partial construction of 8.8 km of tunnels and conveyance canal linking the Kalu Ganga and Moragahakanda reservoirs.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">It will also fund continuing construction of the Mahakithula and Mahakirula Reservoirs, and Mahakithula Inlet Tunnel which had been initiated under Tranche 1 of this program. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The total investment cost of tranche 2 is $242 million with the government giving $32 million and ADB $210 million as two loans. </span></span></i>Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-51149392851014203882018-05-19T17:44:00.002-07:002018-05-19T17:44:51.975-07:00හම්බන්තොට දූපත නැත්නම් සල්ලි නැහැ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-BWrxBEmOc7VQ34SJbavTSqPqj06MghTOvZME_Zi2aEPpB9vYFgglK_lTTZJ8ibDJA4CEt1o-aLvF4rF-68rQT1QWZD8hO5HGq_FxjbUDeTH4NLVl6UIgrP_WqWzNF_I_gR1ZKuZczg9-/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="730" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-BWrxBEmOc7VQ34SJbavTSqPqj06MghTOvZME_Zi2aEPpB9vYFgglK_lTTZJ8ibDJA4CEt1o-aLvF4rF-68rQT1QWZD8hO5HGq_FxjbUDeTH4NLVl6UIgrP_WqWzNF_I_gR1ZKuZczg9-/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-weight: 700;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">දිගුකාලීන බදු පදනම යටතේ චීනයට පවරා දී තිබෙන හම්බන්තොට වරාය ආශ්රිතව මුහුදේ ඉදිකර තිබෙන විශේෂ දූපත චීනයට පවරා දෙන්නේ නැතිනම් මෙම ගනුදෙනුවේ ඉදිරි වාරිකය ලබාදිය නොහැකි බව අදාළ චීන සමාගම ශ්රී ලංකා රජයට දැනුම් දී තිබේ. දූපත ඔවුනට පවරනතුරු ලබාදීම අත්හිටුවා තිබෙන මුදල අමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 500ක් පමණ වෙතැයි ද වාර්තා වෙයි.</span></i></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රජය සමයේ ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 60ක් පමණ වැයකොට සංචාරක ප්රවර්ධනයට උපයෝගී කරගැනීම පිණිස ඉදිකළ මෙකී දූපත හෙක්ටයාර 110කින් සමන්විතය. මෙහි අද වෙළෙඳපොළ වටිනාකම ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 500 ඉක්මන බවද කියැවේ.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">කලින් සැලසුම් කර තිබුණේ මෙහි සංචාරක හෝටල් විනෝදාගාර ආදිය ඉදිකිරීමටය. හම්බන්තොට වරාය චීනයටබදු දීමත් සමඟ එම දූපතද එහි ගිවිසුමට අදාළ බව චීනය කියා සිටී. මෙකී අලුත් දූපත ශ්රී ලංකා දේශසීමාවට අයත් නව දූපතක් ලෙස ගැසට් මගින් ප්රකාශයට පත් කළ යුතුය. එහෙත් තවමත් එලෙස ගැසට් කර නැත. එසේ දූපත ගැසට් කිරීමට දකුණු පළාත් සභාවේ අනුමැතියද අවශ්ය වේ. එහෙත් දූපත මෙලෙස අලුතින් ගැසට් කොට චීනයට පවරාදීමට දකුණු පළාත් සභාවේ දැඩි විරෝධය එල්ල වී ඇතැයි දැනගන්නට ඇත. එනිසා නව දූපතේ ප්රශ්නය බරපතළ අර්බුදයක් බවට පත්වෙමින් තිබේ.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">දේශපාලන වාර්තාකරු l දේශය</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<br /></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-84806065165134562042018-05-19T16:26:00.003-07:002018-05-19T16:26:34.967-07:00Attempts to smuggle out US$ 208,000: Finance Ministry keeps file<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj84q7CtT6siVIOO8R2ML6FDhS-LZQhKirlL_Cu-17VCe7iJOB0m63AogizcbjLmPaWF_cBksenv-VkvblQQkIoQAvCmij9r_XFEvwrVU7v1J7eIbKEQa4d4LBnLJKyt_Wl0eNZJ9vJs7dO/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="647" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj84q7CtT6siVIOO8R2ML6FDhS-LZQhKirlL_Cu-17VCe7iJOB0m63AogizcbjLmPaWF_cBksenv-VkvblQQkIoQAvCmij9r_XFEvwrVU7v1J7eIbKEQa4d4LBnLJKyt_Wl0eNZJ9vJs7dO/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Finance Ministry has retained the Customs file containing evidence on the November arrest of Jaya Sudhir Jayaram, a Malaysian businessman, who was attempting to smuggle foreign currency out of the country, authoritative sources said.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">US dollar notes amounting to US$ 50,000 were found in the hand luggage of Mr. Jayaram. Two others also had US$ 50,000 each in their possession while the fourth carried US$ 58,000. This is a total of US$ 208,000 or Rs 31.8 million.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A file containing evidence against the suspects (including messages of them canvassing powerful political personalities to have them released) was taken from the custody of the relevant Customs officials by the Director General of Customs, the sources said.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />It was then sent to the Ministry of Finance on request. It has still not been returned to the Department of Customs for further action. Neither have the relevant Customs officers been paid their rewards for the sizeable detection.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The suspects are now trying to influence the authorities in Sri Lanka to have the money–which was confiscated–returned to them, the sources claimed. It was not immediately clear who was blocking the investigation from proceeding or punitive action from being taken.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Mr Jayaram had claimed the money was the proceeds of a win at a popular casino in Colombo. However, he could not offer documentary evidence of this claim. The group was allowed to leave on payment of a fine of Rs 400,000 (Rs 100,000 each) while the currency was forfeited.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Customs detection took place on November 10 last year.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Due to substantial political pressure, Mr Jayaram was released without penalty, reliable BIA sources said.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He left the country (for Kuala Lumpur) shortly after his detention–before an inquiry could be conducted–after handing over the US$ 50,000 that had been in his possession to one of the other suspects. He has given a guarantee that he will return for an inquiry when it is scheduled.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The inquiry into non-declaration of currency by two other suspects (who were detained at the gate) was held on the same day. They were fined Rs 200,000 each and released. The undeclared currency was forfeited. The inquiry into the actions of the fourth suspect was postponed till November 23. All three left for Kuala Lumpur in the night of the same day. Mr Jayaram was released in the morning.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Neither Mr Jayaram nor the fourth suspect honoured their word by presenting themselves for the subsequent Customs inquiry, the Sunday Times reliably learns. The proceedings were, therefore, conducted ex-parte. The undeclared currency was forfeited with no penalty imposed.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The offence the group was booked on is non-declaration of currency. Under regulations, anyone taking more than US$ 10,000 in any form of foreign currency, including notes, bank drafts or travel cards, must declare it to Sri Lanka Customs. Anyone taking currency notes of more than US$ 5,000 must also declare it.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Sunday Times</b></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-29861514890641823502018-05-18T21:05:00.002-07:002018-05-18T21:05:50.045-07:00Sri Lankan to ditch CEO Ratwatte, professionals join board<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoK6zdj7wW8c7LY1Gcgnknhzpg5D9G5gZPF0u3LyPkmb-ZeniiSNnOn6A7vVLK1WV79Ob8YIWRGCR4IFTjJfOhsTuToYot-aioippaMuDAH9eizvQbrLktRHt-nk1JJ_SOtph_gooSHkmG/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoK6zdj7wW8c7LY1Gcgnknhzpg5D9G5gZPF0u3LyPkmb-ZeniiSNnOn6A7vVLK1WV79Ob8YIWRGCR4IFTjJfOhsTuToYot-aioippaMuDAH9eizvQbrLktRHt-nk1JJ_SOtph_gooSHkmG/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;">ECONOMYNEXT - The controversial chief executive of Sri Lankan airlines is tipped to be removed as the government reconstitutes the board of directors by adding two more top professionals.</span></span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;" /></i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;">Suren Ratwatte's ouster had been demanded by several former directors, but he stayed on despite the ouster of the entire board following the mini reshuffle of the cabinet of ministers in February.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;" /></i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;">Pilots of Sri Lankan had protested when Ratwatte attempted to renew his licence and sought to be a literally flying CEO. His pay and other benefits were also the subject of a probe by cabinet ministers last year.</span></i><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;" /></i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;">Authoritative sources said Ratwatte was likely to be eased out and a search for a replacement was underway. There was no immediate comment from the airline.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;" /></i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;">After the Ajith Dias-led board failed to turn around the loss-making national carrier, President Maithripala Sirisena took the initiative to play a greater role in restructuring the company, official sources said.</span></i><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;" /></i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;">SriLankan reported an operating loss of 7,489 million rupees in the year ending March 31, 2017, up from a loss of 4,029 million rupees in the previous year.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;" /></i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;">The accumulated losses of the national carrier were 163.62 billion rupees (about $1.1 billion) by March 31, 2017, up from 135 billion rupees in the previous year.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;" /></i><i><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">The government recently appointed a five-member board headed by former banker and senior administrator Ranjith Fernando to revive the cash hemorrhaging carrier.</span></span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;" /></i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;">The authorities added two more members to the board this week -- Johann Wijesinghe, a former Sri Lankan airline employee, and Prof. Arjun de Silva, the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Anti-Doping Agency.</span></i><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;" /></i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;">Wijesinghe, 55, is currently the managing director of Alufab, a company in the Hayleys group. He is also a director of 17 companies. He worked at Sri Lankan airlines for 19 years before leaving in 2008.</span></i><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;" /></i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;">He quit the national carrier with the exit of Emirates, which had successfully managed Sri Lankan, and joined the Hayleys group. He has acquired expertise in freight forwarding and airline operations.</span></i><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;" /></i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;">His new colleague, Oxford-educated Arjuna de Silva, 52, is a former chairman of George Steuart Finance. He is a physician by profession and is also a university lecturer. He has been a physician at the London Olympics and several other international sporting events.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;" /></i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-size: 13px;">Other members of the board are: Mano Tittawella, Susantha Katugampala, Roshan Perera and Kapila Jayampathi, the current air force chief.</span></i></span><br />
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-77379402368728867602018-05-18T08:46:00.001-07:002018-05-18T08:46:51.143-07:00Sri Lanka ports rise to 13th in port connectivity index<div class="itemIntroText" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6IQtdtCZm6r2H3bqk6RlHgIstdCBMpguclB28HNi1DTpU3hk9TiodkAPQ3tY5Vjepmj_-i8sEzWhyphenhyphenyJuzlTwieHAMmmcBAWgAYkFoGEh-Y3p1tguQT2Y14PAGhL9LU4FNY2IFf-P0gg1v/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="245" data-original-width="400" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6IQtdtCZm6r2H3bqk6RlHgIstdCBMpguclB28HNi1DTpU3hk9TiodkAPQ3tY5Vjepmj_-i8sEzWhyphenhyphenyJuzlTwieHAMmmcBAWgAYkFoGEh-Y3p1tguQT2Y14PAGhL9LU4FNY2IFf-P0gg1v/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), which operates the island’s state-run ports, continues to make inroads into the transhipment market, improving five places to 13th in the Drewry Port Connectivity Index in the fourth quarter of 2017.</span></b></div>
</div>
<div class="itemFullText" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the process, it has also gained from the good throughput flow and the Port of Colombo saw record volume of 6.2m teu in 2017. Sri Lanka’s main port also became the port with the best connectivity in South Asia.</span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For its dedicated efforts to raise the global position of the Port of Colombo, SLPA was awarded the Ports Authority of the Year Award by the Global Ports Forum (GPF) in 2018. </span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With its latest initiatives made under the guidance of Minister of Ports and Shipping Mahinda Samarasinghe and under the management led by the SLPA chairman.Parakrama Dissanayake, all sectors of port operation have shown rapid growth compared to previous corresponding periods.</span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SLPA has also prepared a three-year development plan to expedite Sri Lanka’s port sector development process to further increase container volumes.</span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Vincent Wee<i> - </i>Asia Editor, Seatrade Maritime News</span></b></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-20749647204307626972018-05-17T21:13:00.001-07:002018-05-17T21:15:19.176-07:00Questions over Sri Lanka's risky bank borrowings to repay long bonds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBD8sbJjd7afmkwNCxwGFOLGfIpdHjOWp12PjmnDcJt5idXJSr-nRslWNwjunsM_Z3b98h5Fvr9a1x8iAFWIHPhG6FYhyDtIklZn-9SrQhyphenhyphen5RpWs_7iv18NG-gNBtYuwa-g-iZWkxNSyHK/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="648" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBD8sbJjd7afmkwNCxwGFOLGfIpdHjOWp12PjmnDcJt5idXJSr-nRslWNwjunsM_Z3b98h5Fvr9a1x8iAFWIHPhG6FYhyDtIklZn-9SrQhyphenhyphen5RpWs_7iv18NG-gNBtYuwa-g-iZWkxNSyHK/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">ECONOMYNEXT -</span></b> <i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sri Lanka has used risky bank borrowings to repay maturing long bonds it has been revealed, raising questions on the role played by the move in an April shock to the monetary system from tens of billions of newly created money that hit the credibility of a dollar peg and sent the rupee crashing down.</span></i></span><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The rupee which was 155.50/80 on March 28, had collapsed to 158.80 levels in the spot market by May after large volumes of money was printed to keep rates down as overnight rates spiked in April.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Meanwhile the monetary system turned from being a firm peg with where base money was driven by the acquisition of foreign assets up to March, to an unstable peg with liquidity driven by domestic assets, a problem associated with so-called soft-pegs which gets de-stabilized easily. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">It has now been revealed that Sri Lanka has repaid tens of billions of rupees on April 02 by overdrawing state banks, in the belief by authorities that an earlier pay-down of an overdraft had created a 'buffer'.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The event is also raising questions whether the overdrafts were then re-financed by central bank liquidity injections and a rate spike in late March was from a state banks scrambling to find money to cover an overdraft amid a seasonal real demand for cash in a traditional New Year period.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On March 28, Sri Lanka offered 80 billion rupees of bonds, for settlement on April 02, sharply lower than the total maturing volume and interest coupons, which was estimated to be over 100 billion rupees. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On April 02, the balance maturing bonds and interest coupons were repaid by overdrawing state banks, turning a paper security in the hands of savers and bank balance sheets into loanable liquid cash.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The 'buffer'</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The central bank, which is managing debt on behalf of the Treasury says it has sold Treasury bills from June 2017, in excess of daily cash needs to pay down pre-existing overdrafts at state banks, to create a 'buffer'.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"So for example last year, during the period of July to December we were able to build a 100 Billion buffer, especially for the debt service payments process," Deputy Governor C J P Siriwardene said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"Similarly that process is continuing now. Even now for example, last month we have raised more than 20 billion additional funds from the market by issuing Treasury bills for the debt service payments."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Under a new liability management law, two accounts would be created to keep funds, including a dollar account, but in the meantime, overdrafts and the Bank of Ceylon and People's Bank were being paid down, he said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">State banks, including the Bank of Ceylon, was then free to loan the cash to other customers boosting credit. No cash was especially ring fenced or placed at the central bank to meet the sudden overdraft.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">When tens of billions of rupees are overdrawn in to repay bonds later, the Bank of Ceylon or People's Bank may have to go to the central bank's liquidity windows get new cash, expanding reserve money and eventually pushing the rupee down when imports are paid for with the newly created cash.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Central Bank Re-finance</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Deputy Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe says the question of whether the funds were separately earmarked would not arise if the Bank of Ceylon could borrow from other market participants and lend to the Treasury, without creating new money. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The original paying down of the overdraft with money raised from T-bill sales will not create new money either, he pointed out (unless a dealer went to the window to get new money to bid for the bill auction in the first place).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Under current rules, no bank has to keep funds in the central bank in excess of the statutory reserve ratio (SRR), he said. Analysts say however that prudent foreign banks routinely keep excess funds.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"It does not require Bank of Ceylon to have 50 billion readily available in their accounts," Weerasinghe explained (assuming for example that 50 billion was needed to repay a part of a bond maturity).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"They are coming to the window depending on whether they maintain surplus liquidity or a deficit. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"If they are below the SRR, it does not matter whether government comes or not they have to either borrow from the interbank market or us."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Weerasinghe said the central bank will inject (create new money) or withdraw money depending on whether there was a deficit or surplus in the interbank market.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">A chronic benign overall interbank surplus develops in Sri Lanka usually when credit slows in the months following rate hikes made to end a balance of payments crisis and the central bank buys dollars (unsterilized or partially sterilized dollar purchases). </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">An overall cash deficit can develop when the central bank sells dollars to defend the currency (unsterilized sale) or when money goes out of the system due to a real demand for cash, such as in the Sinhala and Tamil New Year period.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Small daily variations can happen due to cash demand by bank customers. In general, the monetary base (notes in circulation and statutory reserve at the central bank) will expand with economic activity and inflation or both.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"If there is a deficit in the market and the Bank of Ceylon is in a deficit, then for the overall deficit we will conduct the (reverse repo) auction," Weerasinghe explains.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Monetizing</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Analysts say a dangerous cash surplus can develop when the central bank buys Treasury bills outright to finance budget deficit (straight monetizing of debt), which if done persistently, when credit growth is strong, leads to a balance of payments crisis and high inflation.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">If the central bank injects money through reverse repo auctions to finance banks which are lending irresponsibly without deposits, while responsible banks have deposits and excess money in the central bank's standing deposit window, also a surplus could develop.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Looking at the data in late March and April also raises more questions.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On March 27, the interbank market had an aggregate surplus of 31 billion rupees, with some banks borrowing 1.7 billion from the window and the central bank mopping up 25 billion rupees overnight. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On the same day, the weighted average overnight repo rate, where market participants give loans to each backed by Treasuries, was 7.64 percent, about 40 basis points above the7.25 percent repo window rate indicating the policy corridor floor. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The maximum rate at which market participants borrowed on that day was 8.00 percent.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On March 28, the overall surplus dropped sharply to 6.1 billion rupees for reasons that are not clear and banks with cash deficits were borrowing 6.79 billion rupees and excess banks were depositing 12.80 billion in the central bank's window.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On the same day, the weighted average overnight repo rate, was 7.66 percent and maximum rate was 8.00 percent.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Rate Spike</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On March 29, the last market day before the maturing bonds were to be repaid, the overnight weighted average rate jumped suddenly to 8.21 percent and the maximum rate to 8.45 percent. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The ceiling policy rate at which market players could get newly created money from the reverse repo window was 8.75 percent.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On the same day the central bank injected 20 billion rupees in new money through a one-day auction into the banking system at rates as high as 8.75 percent, while another 1.79 billion rupees was borrowed from the 8.75 percent window.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The overall surplus was a marginal 0.47 billion rupees, with 25 billion rupees deposited in the excess cash window of the central bank, up from 12.8 billion rupees a day earlier.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On April 02, the day bonds were repaid, 30 billion rupees was injected at an average repo rate increased further to 8.21 percent with some borrowing at 8.6 percent. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On the same day central bank's Treasury bill stock also rose to 43.9 billion rupees from 12.9 billion rupees a day earlier based on the way data is released now. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The average repo rate was 8.40 percent and the maximum rate rose to 8.65 percent.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">After the bond repayment excess banks - which could have included banks whose bonds were repaid - had deposited 30 billion rupees in the central bank's repo window and while others borrowed 2.52 billion rupees. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">End of the day liquidity was a deficit of 2.14 billion rupees.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On April 03 the average repo rate rose further to 8.42 percent and the maximum rate to 8.65 percent.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The central bank injected 25 billion rupees for two days through a reverse repo auction on April 03 at an average rate of 8.6 percent after offering 50 billion rupees, which is about 5 percent of the country's entire monetary base (about the equivalent of 300 million US dollars).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">End of the day excess liquidity rose to 11.67 billion rupees.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Clean money rates where banks deal also kept pace. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On April 03, 38 billion rupees were deposited in the central bank instead of being loaned to others.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Excess Liquidity and Counterparty Risk</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Though some banks may be in excess, they cannot lend all the money to other banks, because risk limits prohibit them from doing so. Foreign banks in particular have strict limits with counter parties. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Instead they will have to lend to customers or buy bonds.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">In Si Lanka after an oil hedging fiasco as well as turmoil in Treasury bonds markets in recent years, counter party limits have tightened.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On April 04, the central bank said it was cutting the ceiling reverse repo window rate to 8.50 percent from 8.75 percent, the first time since the balance of payments crisis ended.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">On the same day another 12.85 billion rupees was injected at a sharply lower average rate of 8.07 percent. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Excess liquidity jumped to 31.2 billion rupees. Excess banks deposited 44 billion rupees in the window. Overall excess liquidity jumped to 31 billion rupees.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">After the New Year the rupee started to fall, but the central bank did not intervene despite having injected tens of billions of rupees in the banking system or kill the liquidity quickly at the first time of trouble in the peg.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">More money was injected in subsequent days for longer terms. In the New Year however in all years, money has to be injected to feed the real demand in cash.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Bank Borrowings</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Questions asked what role the bond repayment played in a mystery rate spike in the last days of May, which was then followed by a rate cut and more liquidity injections, particularly since festival cash is a normal occurrence in Sri Lanka, which needs deeper study. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The situation is further complicated by a tax change in bonds that pushed up gilt yields.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">However that central bank's tendency to create money creation to finance government debt and borrowings from the commercial banking system (monetizing debt) has long been identified as the primary factor de-stabilizing the banking system, and the economy.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">While recent balance of payments crises have been caused by central bank acquisitions of Treasury bills with new money (rejecting bids at auctions), if bonds are repaid (government cash deficits met) with bank borrowings, which are then re-financed through reverse repo operations the effect on the credit system is similar.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Classical economist B R Shenoy warned Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) as far back as 1966 that that "borrowing from the Central Bank and commercial banks" finance the government's net cash deficit resulted in the creation of new money.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Borrowing real savings to finance deficits was not expansionary, he said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"No additions to the money supply take place when the savings of the people are claimed by the government to finance its outlays; such operations merely shift moneys from the pockets of the savers into the pockets of the recipients of government disbursements," Shenoy wrote.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">But borrowing from the central bank clearly created new money.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"This is obvious when deficit financing is effected through Central Bank borrowing either as Ways and Means advances or against sales of Public Debt to the Central Bank," Shenoy wrote.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"In either case, equivalent Central Bank money gets issued into circulation."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"Central Bank money gets issued into circulation, too, when budget deficits are covered by drafts on Cash Balances,"</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Even if bonds were sold to commercial banks, which were then paid for by running down the SRR new money would be created, he pointed out. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Analysts a re-examination of using the overdraft 'buffer', and the way it is financed, may be required.</span></span></i>Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-52840670275613612962018-05-17T05:23:00.002-07:002018-05-17T05:23:22.955-07:00Sri Lanka central bank talks up the rupee<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ3K2mGxLIwVrJINIF2mzMuBUgf2Cl19oLG-7CDNsKw6xe4TylELsCnVAGbRwcPvjoxDBu4E6wenLMQcCeIR-xFiQBC-yhJ4JEGZGJjf7duhAxeq0ios1k37p0KCzbv6qSiGVvq-BGDerx/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="989" data-original-width="1600" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ3K2mGxLIwVrJINIF2mzMuBUgf2Cl19oLG-7CDNsKw6xe4TylELsCnVAGbRwcPvjoxDBu4E6wenLMQcCeIR-xFiQBC-yhJ4JEGZGJjf7duhAxeq0ios1k37p0KCzbv6qSiGVvq-BGDerx/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">ECONOMYNEXT - </span></b><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sri Lanka's central bank talked up the rupee, as the currency fell to a fresh intra-day low almost touching 159 to the US dollar in the spot market.<br /><br />"The underlying fundamentals do not warrant the current pressure on the Sri Lanka rupee," the central bank said.<br /><br />"Gross external reserves are presently at a healthy USD 9.1 bn and the real effective exchange rate indices indicate that the currency is competitive.<br /><br />"The pressure on the currency is, therefore, unwarranted."<br /><br />The rupee came under pressure after the central bank cut rates amid a rate spike and injected large volumes of cash in the market amid a seasonal drawdown of cash.</span></i></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Currency pressure is a result of a so-called soft-pegged central bank trying to control both interest rates (printing money) and the exchange rate at the same time.</span></i></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The bank has continued to allow excess liquidity in the system despite pressure on the currency. On May 16 excess liquidity rose to 11.8 billion rupees from 3.0 billion rupees a day earlier.</span></i></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Excess liquidity can rise due to daily cash variations in banks or an unsterilized dollar purchase.</span></i></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sri Lanka's central bank has been known in the past to make unsterilized dollar purchases in the midst of currency pressure. While an unsterilized purchase adds to reserves, unless all the dollars are sold again to defend the currency, when the liquidity generated is used by banks, the currency will weaken, analysts warn.</span></i></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An unsterilized dollar purchase is pegging, and is incompatible with a float. (Update II)<br /><br />The full statement is reproduced below:</span></i></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<strong style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CBSL Determined to Curb Unwarranted Depreciation of the Rupee</span></i></strong></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="background: transparent; line-height: 25.68px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span></strong>The underlying fundamentals do not warrant the current pressure on the Sri Lanka rupee. Gross external reserves are presently at a healthy USD 9.1 bn and the real effective exchange rate indices indicate that the currency is competitive.<br /><br />The pressure on the currency is, therefore, unwarranted.<br /><br />The following inflows are expected to boost the current robust level of reserves in the coming weeks.<br /><br />- USD 250 mn as the next tranche of the IMF EFF in early June;<br /><br />- USD 585 mn as the final payment on the long lease of the Hambantota port during the 2nd week of June 2018; and<br /><br />- USD 1 bn as the proceeds of a syndicated term loan due in mid-June 2018.<br /><br />Gross external reserves are, therefore, expected to amount to a record close to USD 11 bn by mid-June 2018.<br /><br />While being committed to flexible exchange rate management, the CBSL has the option of using a part of its unprecedentedly large external reserves to trigger a material appreciation of the rupee to prevent unwarranted depreciation of the currency, particularly as it is not justified by the underlying fundamentals. </span></i></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-91202016306139568272018-05-16T18:02:00.001-07:002018-05-16T18:02:31.323-07:00Immigration key catalyst for development<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7orr8FFIhX7hDIv11RSQF57IyIttVsz3i7ISx7gYxALWBaIqbuUaNQgDAhTwySGV2gSO-mT9TnJtAfXzCyHrohT1_Aa2tlr5uyG2IcyYzQwUaUdCRWvT3rSlIAgdrnlS6mm1U0vEhR7w7/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="1000" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7orr8FFIhX7hDIv11RSQF57IyIttVsz3i7ISx7gYxALWBaIqbuUaNQgDAhTwySGV2gSO-mT9TnJtAfXzCyHrohT1_Aa2tlr5uyG2IcyYzQwUaUdCRWvT3rSlIAgdrnlS6mm1U0vEhR7w7/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reforming immigration law to allow free movement of people through progressive laws could tackle Sri Lanka’s chronic economic challenges of narrow exports, low Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and limited innovation, a top expert said yesterday, outlining many examples of countries that have experienced growth spurts by opening up their labour markets. </span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></span>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Prof. Ricardo Hausmann is Director of Harvard’s Center for International Development and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Kennedy School of Government. Delivering a lecture titled “Accessing knowhow for development” organised by think tank Advocata in Colombo, Prof. Hausmann, himself a Venezuelan migrant to the US, laid out a compelling case on how well-managed immigration and emigration could benefit the economic fortunes of countries. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">“It is the cheapest idea around. The lowest hanging fruit for the developing world to access. The fastest way to increase productivity, attract investment and make Sri Lanka a much stronger country,” he told a packed audience at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">“With the talent you have, you have the country you have. But with the talent you have, you cannot have the country you want to have. For that, you have to look for talent, and if other people come to live in Sri Lanka they are not coming to steal other people’s jobs. They are definitely here to create more jobs, and to help locals make more money. Because they decide to come to Sri Lanka, that should make you feel good about your country. It means that there are other people in the world who think you are cool. That this is a great place to live,” he said. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Prof. Hausmann conceded that it was understandable that local professionals would feel threatened by a liberalised labour market, but he emphasised that in country after country, there are examples to show that immigration creates jobs and increases salaries rather than the opposite. He insisted that allowing free movement of labour makes economies more competitive and industries more profitable, and noted that the idea of immigration taking away jobs “does not make economic sense.” </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Taking Sri Lanka’s IT industry as an example, he pointed out how it could gain from linking with the more vibrant Indian market, and would not be impacted by a significant inflow of Indian IT professionals because they are better paid than locals. He pointed out that arguments against the Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by doctors were also invalid for the same reason. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">During the hour-long lecture, which was followed by a question and answer session, Prof. Hausmann explained that an industry such as agriculture can be both low in productivity and highly productive, in different parts of the world, at the same time, because of the larger linkages of knowhow that some countries have as opposed to others. He pointed out that traditional farmers actually have greater knowledge than their industrialised counterparts, but a farmer in a developed country would have access to the latest equipment, high-yield seeds, best fertiliser and stronger market links that would give them higher profits. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Comparing Sri Lanka with Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam, Prof. Hausmann noted that unlike other countries, Sri Lanka had failed to add new products to its export basket, and therefore was constrained by exports that could be easily duplicated elsewhere. He also pointed out that this is linked to low FDI and other issues in Sri Lanka’s economy, for which immigration could be a feasible solution. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">“Economies grow by adding new products and services to their production portfolio, and not by producing more of the same kinds of products. The key to such diversification is access to know-how, but know-how often has to come from abroad. This is because it is often easier to move brains to new countries than to move new know-how into brains. In the experience of Singapore, India, Vietnam and most other dynamic economies, three channels of know-how transfer stand out: FDI, immigration and diaspora networks,” he told the gathering. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Drawing from data, Prof. Hausmann showed how in other countries, foreigners are a significant segment of the population. In the US, one in seven individuals is estimated to be a foreigner, while in Singapore one in every two individuals is a foreigner. In contrast, in Sri Lanka only one in 535 people is a foreigner. Large industries in the US, such as car manufacturing in Detroit and Silicon Valley, were begun by immigrants. Almost half of Fortune 500 companies were formed by immigrants or their children, while Bangladesh’s very successful garment industry was founded by a Korean company, whose employees later went onto start their own businesses. Bangalore and Hyderabad are two cities that thrive because of vibrant immigration links, and because of Indians who have returned to become IT entrepreneurs. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Prof. Hausmann also went on to say that Sri Lanka has its own set of companies, such as Loadstar, that was begun with international support and expertise. He praised local apparel companies, such as MAS, that possessed what he described as the “best factories in the world.” </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">All these positive traits could be promoted through allowing a robust immigration and emigration system, he added: “So when we did a comparison of Sri Lanka’s immigration policy with Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Vietnam, the most successful ones have a very successful immigration policy, and it shows in the type of rules that they have. For example, they have a variety of visa rules for unskilled categories, semi-skilled, trainees, managers, and professionals. Typically, Sri Lanka allows high-skilled people in, but they don’t allow their dependents to work. If the BOI gives a work permit to one person, then their spouse is not allowed to work. Usually professional people marry other professional people, so if you are married and you cannot bring your wife, or she cannot work, that becomes an issue.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">“The idea I would suggest for Sri Lanka is to simplify procedures for immigration, create more visa categories, so that you become a more attractive place. Provide a path to residency, which is the case in most countries, and allow them to become citizens. In fact now, a Sri Lankan who migrates out of Sri Lanka and gives up his citizenship, is not allowed to come and stay in Sri Lanka. That is weird. These are inefficiencies of the system that would be better fixed.” </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">However, Prof. Hausmann acknowledged that immigration policy alone would not fix all of Sri Lanka’s economic problems, and advocated that the Government should continue its other policies, such as market reforms, fiscal consolidation and infrastructure development. “Anything that is worth doing is worth doing better. So there are many other things that need to be improved. I think Sri Lanka needs to go from authorising or handholding investors, to actually going out and seeking investors, and making the case for investors as to why they should be here. We have been working with the BOI and the EDB in trying to get them to move in that direction. I drove five hours to Kandy and five hours back from Kandy, and I don’t think I’ll be driving to Kandy again. Obviously infrastructure is something that needs work, but that is expensive and you need to have the fiscal space to do that.” </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: white;">He noted that anti-immigration sentiment was present in all countries, but that it could be mitigated by strong, diversified and transparent immigration laws. He opined that even the UK after Brexit had worked to spruce up its visa laws, but stopped short of making any changes that would hit its economic strength.</span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></i>
<span style="background-color: white;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">By Uditha Jayasinghe - FT</span></b></span>Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-82177187730454111582018-05-16T17:41:00.000-07:002018-05-16T17:41:20.764-07:00Foreign reserves to soar to US$ 11 bn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvO885srbAT3pd9onunMBO_Khi50DdCrMSviOXdYb0E_Uuu9bkN4GVPQ5orITtS7aGK2E_CwOBK8jYKPTtAZimptVEf195lLIehEfiLD2aSfcP2TtIuwkgKVab46A_E_Kt04cwwy6hP43b/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="590" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvO885srbAT3pd9onunMBO_Khi50DdCrMSviOXdYb0E_Uuu9bkN4GVPQ5orITtS7aGK2E_CwOBK8jYKPTtAZimptVEf195lLIehEfiLD2aSfcP2TtIuwkgKVab46A_E_Kt04cwwy6hP43b/s320/Capture.JPG" width="317" /></a></div>
<div class="field-item even" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">CBSL TO CONTAIN RUPEE DEPRECIATION :</span></b></div>
<div class="field-item odd" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Pressure on the currency is unwarranted:</span></b></div>
<div class="field-item odd" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="field-item odd" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Central Bank said it has taken measures to contain the depreciation of the Rupee.</span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The underlying fundamentals do not warrant the current pressure on the Sri Lanka rupee. Gross external reserves are presently at a healthy USD 9.1 bn, while the real effective exchange rate indices indicate that the currency is competitive, the Central Bank said yesterday.</span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The pressure on the currency is, therefore, unwarranted.</span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The USD 250 mn as the next tranche of the IMF EFF in early June; the USD 585 mn as the final payment on the long lease of the Hambantota Port during the second week of June 2018; and the USD 1 bn as the proceeds of a syndicated term loan due in mid-June 2018 are expected to boost the current robust level of reserves in the coming weeks.</span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gross external reserves are, therefore, expected to amount to a record close to US$ 11 bn by mid-June 2018.</span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While being committed to flexible exchange rate management, the CBSL has the option of using a part of its unprecedentedly large external reserves to trigger a material appreciation of the rupee to prevent unwarranted depreciation of the currency, particularly as it is not justified by the underlying fundamentals, the CBSL said in a press release.</span></i></div>
</div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-52442931675245870902018-05-15T09:00:00.001-07:002018-05-15T09:00:56.429-07:00JR’s Presidency and MR’s Monarchy in Sri Lanka<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYPMpFBWdJmMTB0F2KdkyCdD9XB9xctkF-dU9M8w81-F_PzqiHTikuGjOfBbntPtMmOWaABuy787YdEX1icAhSyRBrKVJ5xHeTf5w7nYuJHh1dw6eTjL7C6x18xL1aLtjClYWk_KXckc-j/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="617" data-original-width="891" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYPMpFBWdJmMTB0F2KdkyCdD9XB9xctkF-dU9M8w81-F_PzqiHTikuGjOfBbntPtMmOWaABuy787YdEX1icAhSyRBrKVJ5xHeTf5w7nYuJHh1dw6eTjL7C6x18xL1aLtjClYWk_KXckc-j/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">by Sarath De Alwis - Syndicated</span></i></strong></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">History repeats, because we don’t listen the first time. Those who wanted genuine change, now pin their hopes on the 20th Amendment which would abolish the Executive Presidency and restore parliamentary rule.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Mahinda Rajapaksa presidency in the years 2010-2015 is remarkable for its successes and excesses. If he planned to perpetuate his rule, he did so for a good reason.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kingship is an ancient office. Mahinda’s second term was a modern ‘kingship’. That explains the vociferous opposition to the proposed abolition of the executive presidency. When the powerful Executive President ended a war and became the unifier of the land and redeemer of his tribe, he became the anointed ruler of the tribe.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The abolition of the executive presidency will not impugn the unitary form of the Republic. That is balderdash by a segment of the Opposition that is itching for a strong man to rescue the land from democratic chaos and restore the discipline of the despot.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The executive presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa is far more complex than what was designed by President J.R. Jayewardene.<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;" />The executive presidency introduced in 1978 was the result of a unique turn of events that occurred in 1977.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The UNP received more than 50 percent of the total vote in the entire island. Under the first-past-the-post electoral system that existed in 1977, this translated into the UNP getting 5/6 of seats in Parliament. The massive mandate turned the septuagenarian JRJ into a philosopher king.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With philosophic detachment he outlined his vision. He told an interviewer, “I think you must trim your sails to your own country’s needs and resources and forget about philosophies and theories”</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fortified by this unprecedented mandate, President JRJ decided that the country needed a ‘strong and stable executive not subject to the whims and fancies of an elected legislature’. He wanted an authoritative institution ‘not afraid to take ‘correct but unpopular measures’.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Presidency of J.R. Jayewardene ended quietly in considerable confusion. His friend, classmate and political adversary, Dr. Colvin R de Silva wrote a brilliantly incisive pamphlet, ‘The UNP Government and the Crisis of the Nation ‘summing up the times of the first executive presidency.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“To drift as we are doing under this government, offering no alternative to a state at war with a section of the people, is to drift to disaster. That is not the way to prevent what has to be prevented; namely the division of this country into two separate states which cannot survive except as client states of big powers. The UNP government has put our independence in peril. And so also, and no less, have the Tigers!”</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Readers should forgive me for the extensive quote. We owe history some degree of honesty. As Kafka told us in the business of writing, let us not bend. Let us not water it down. Let us not try to make the illogical logical. Let us not edit our souls. We should follow our obsessions mercilessly.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the case of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the dice fell differently. He won the Presidency by a whisker a quarter century later in 2005. He beat the Tigers in 2009. He became the unifier of the land.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Following the military triumph, the Executive Presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa quietly acquired the prototypical character of a ‘Kingship’.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Authoritarian rule is not pure coercion. It is not only state machinery. The apparatus of coercion can coopt religious leaders to manipulate the flock to desired goals and targets. Domination of minds from within was the singular achievement of Mahinda Rajapaksa.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Constitutional amendments are adopted or rejected not on their relative merits. Partisan interests have guided our constitutional evolution. If some group feels that the proposed outcome is a zero-sum game, the intended outcome was of little relevance.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Traditional institutions are conditioned to resist change to existing arrangements that function to their advantage. Traditional elites make it their business to stunt the growth and the spread of democracy.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Buddhist clergy is such a traditional institution. They constitute a traditional elite. They are profoundly hierarchical in orientation. To them, democracy is peripheral.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the executive presidency, we created an agency that was superior to the elected Parliament. It was a manipulative authority concentrated in the hands of a single person.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Under the first executive presidency, life of Parliament was extended by a decidedly flawed referendum. It was pure and simple slaughter of democracy.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Historian Isaac Deutscher described the murders of German Socialist pioneers Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht in 1919 as the last triumph of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Hohenzollern Germany and the first triumph of Hitler’s Nazi Germany.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Referendum held under the Executive Presidency of JRJ was the last triumph of the UNP that won independence for Ceylon. It was the first triumph of the autocracy of Mahinda Rajapaksa that ended the civil war in Sri Lanka.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you trample on freedom, you leave footprints for successors. Relative morality is the name of the game.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The parallel is cited for one reason only. The study of history compels us to confront chaos while retaining our faith in its order and meaning.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The successful conclusion of the war made Mahinda Rajapaksa something more than an Executive President. He became the unifier of the motherland, redeemer of the Dhammadveepa – the land of the righteous. The three principal sects of Sangha fraternity have bestowed on Mahinda Rajapaksa exotic titles usually associated with our ancient kings: Vishva Kirti Sri Sinhaladhisvara, Sri Vira Vikrama Lankadhisvara, Sri Lanka Rajavamsa Vibhushana Dharmadvipa Cakravarti.”</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This should not surprise us. The clergy as it is constituted today is an institution that operates on the principle of inequality and a top down flow of power and authority.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The memory of kings has a tenacious hold on the Sinhala Buddhist Sangha fraternity. That hold is less spiritual and more political.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Political institutions cannot be fashioned independent of the customs and practices of a society.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, the proposed abolition of the executive presidency has provoked a high-pitched opposition from an influential section of the Maha Sangha. The pro-Rajapaksa clerical troopers are versatile practitioners of the art of intimidatory persuasion. They proceed on the theory that he who shouts loudest is heard most.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They are most comfortable with a coercive disciplinary state that guarantees their tenure as shepherds of the flock. Past glories constitute their principal platform. Confronting enemies of the nation is their primary occupation.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They are pronounced partisans of the Mahinda Rajapaksa-led opposition. It is therefore obvious that they not only wish to preserve the powerful executive presidency but would like a Mahinda Rajapaksa proxy to reoccupy it. There is logic behind the move. The military victory over the separatists has had a seismic impact on the executive presidency.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mahinda was indeed a ‘King’ to his followers. He still is. He will remain on this perch or pedestal as long as that section of the Buddhist clergy succeeds in sustaining the Sinhala Supremacist sentiment.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mahinda defeated separatism and unified the country. He is the modern hero king. There is indeed some popular basis to this notion. That said, it is clear that in Ven Medagoda Abayatissa thero, spearheading the opposition to the abolition of the executive presidency, he has an an image maker of great promise. He is able to present the sales pitch as scripture and doctrine.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monarchist sentiment was never completely extinguished in Sri Lanka. The Kandyan Convention was an instrument that enabled the monastic orders of Kandy to continue state sponsored rituals. The Monastic elite accepted the British King. As an eminent social anthropologist recently pointed out, among our traditional Buddhist clergy, “embers of monarchist fantasy lie beneath, ready to be ignited at the slightest opportunity.”</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Post war triumphalism anointed the Executive Presidency with a sanctity associated normally with ancient Kings in our folklore.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Rajapaksa regime found that a restoration of a new indigenous order – part feudal, part oligarchic, replete with a religio-magical legitimization, would be politically more rewarding than reaching out to genuine reconciliation.<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;" />So, we are back in a drift, just as comrade Colvin pointed out in the eighties.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The drive to glorify a vanished past, was a thinly disguised political project that constructed a paternalistic kingship associated with the executive presidency. Parallel to the process of making a ‘ Maharajano’ was the idea that the Sinhala people are the true citizens of the land and others are guests who must not demand more than their due.</span></i></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This trend had other negative consequences. The culture of impunity became firmly entrenched. Dissent was construed anti national. Ethnic supremacy of the modern kingship had a price: Our freedom.</span></i></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-29506631795182291622018-05-12T08:02:00.001-07:002018-05-12T08:02:55.139-07:00Sri Lanka's richest 10-pct consume 31-pct of fuel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_K5AOflbIXKNvrmUH-h3NSZP-Hd0K5KrsicwZETf29KwfKcqk6Mc27oTVptoRqJakCJyNGSeWuAN_nty_JDInaYO9hv3zw_3WaMC1BQxPBi1_ov8px0fL0URp54HaDChlWWi65s7UwF1l/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="853" height="379" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_K5AOflbIXKNvrmUH-h3NSZP-Hd0K5KrsicwZETf29KwfKcqk6Mc27oTVptoRqJakCJyNGSeWuAN_nty_JDInaYO9hv3zw_3WaMC1BQxPBi1_ov8px0fL0URp54HaDChlWWi65s7UwF1l/s640/Capture.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">ECONOMYNEXT -</span></b><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Sri Lanka's richest 10 percent of households consume 31 percent of the fuel used in the country, based on the latest household income data, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said.</i></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Samaraweera said the government would pay a subsidy to poor households in the Samurdhi income support scheme who used kerosene for lighting. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Sri Lanka hiked petrol by 17 percent to 137 rupees a litre and diesel by 14.7 percent to 109 rupees a litre as global prices rose and the rupee collapsed to 155 from 131 to the US dollars due to money printing and real effective exchange rate index targeting.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Kerosene was raised from 44 rupees to 101 rupees a litre. Sri Lanka raised kerosene prices during the Rajapaksa administration after finding out that most of it was used by big factories owned by multimillionaires but the new administration slashed the price, raising concerns over corruption.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Samaraweera said a cash grant would also be given to small boat owners who used kerosene.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Small fishing boats that used kerosene would also get a subsidy. A cash grant would be sent to their bank accounts from the first of June, Samaraweera said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">According to finance ministry calculations based on Sri Lanka's 2016 Household Income and Expenditure Survey the richest 20 percent of society consumed 47 percent of the fuel and the richest 30 percent consumed 60 percent of the fuel.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The poorest 10 percent of society consumed only 2 percent of the fuel sold, the next 10 percent, 3 percent showing that the poorest 20 percent of society consumed only 5 percent of the fuel.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The poorest 30 percent of household consumed only 10 percent of the fuel.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The trend holds the world over, as energy use goes up with incomes. Within countries also richer countries use more energy per person than less affluent countries. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The rich use cars, travel more and in the case of electricity also they have bigger houses and may use air conditioning or washing machines.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">As a result energy taxes are progressive and should delight leftists in particular. Even those operating in a black economic pay taxes when they travel and energy taxes when they travel. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">On the other hand, food taxes, especially import duties on basic foods, imposed to give extra profits to the farming lobby are regressive and hurts the poor the most. </span>Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-80872722520371112802018-05-12T01:24:00.002-07:002018-05-12T01:24:58.355-07:00බුද්ධි මට්ටම අතින් අපි ඉන්නේ පහළ මට්ටමක - ආචාර්ය අසන්තා අත්තනායක<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwAtZELzzM3KJ76vkhpscfC0KCNtAp23RvixHm5-84b7xLQVigVXgb9BF2AULCYUV0vwLbpgDY-3CUX7qSlPXUr74HKgRpYUBC6-KVLlihLry_87dEEY9w03opuggNL_fWqfmJ4xIpM6Qv/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="630" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwAtZELzzM3KJ76vkhpscfC0KCNtAp23RvixHm5-84b7xLQVigVXgb9BF2AULCYUV0vwLbpgDY-3CUX7qSlPXUr74HKgRpYUBC6-KVLlihLry_87dEEY9w03opuggNL_fWqfmJ4xIpM6Qv/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">හර්ෂණ තුෂාර සිල්වා - </span></strong><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>ලoකාදීප</b></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i>ලෝකයේ අනෙක් රටවල බුද්ධි මට්ටම් හා සැලකීමේදී අප සිටින්නේ ඉතා කනගාටුදායක තත්ත්වයක යැයි කොළඹ විශ්වවිද්යාලයේ ආචාර්ය අසන්තා අත්තනායක මහත්මිය අද (10) ප්රකාශ කළාය.</i></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>සාක්ෂාරතාව සියයට 98ක් යැයි මහ ඉහළින් කීවත් බුද්ධි මට්ටම අතින් අප පහළ මට්ටමක සිටින්නේ යැයි ද සාක්ෂරතාව සහ බුද්ධි මට්ටම යනු හාත්පසින්ම වෙනස් මිණුම් දඬු දෙකක් යැයි ද ඇය කීවාය. </i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>ලෝකයේ සම්මත ආකාරවලට අනුව බුද්ධි මට්ටම ගණනය කරන බවත් එහිදි අප අයත් වන්නේ 72ත් 82ත් අතර බුද්ධි මට්ටම් ස්ථරයට බවත් තවත් පහළට වැටුණහොත් අපි මන්ද බුද්ධික මට්ටමට පත්වෙනවා යැයි ද ආචාර්ය අත්තනායක මහත්මිය පැවැසුවාය. </i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>බී.ඒ.ඩී ජයන්තර වීරසිංහ මහතා රචිත ‘ජීවිතය ජයගන්නට මා ආ ගමන් මඟ’ කෘතිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් රාජගිරිය ශ්රී ලංකා පුවත්පත් මණ්ඩලයේ පැවැති කතිකාවකදී අදහස් දක්වමින් ආචාර්ය අසන්තා අත්තනායක මහත්මිය එම කරුණු කීවාය.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i>“අපිට සමාජයේ වෙන දේවල් දැක්කම ඒ ගැන පුදුම වෙන්න දෙයක් නැහැ. බුද්ධි මට්ටම ඉහළම රටවල් අතර ඉදිරියෙන්ම ඉන්නේ දකුණු කොරියාව. ඉන් අනතුරුව ජපානයත් ඊට පසු යුරෝපා රටවල් සිටිනවා. ඉන්දියාවත් අපට වඩා ඉදිරියෙන් ඉන්නවා. දකුණු කොරියාවේ බුද්ධි මට්ටම 102. ඉන්දියාවේ 84යි. අපි ඉන්දියාවටත් පස්සෙන් ඉන්නේ. </i></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i>අපි සාක්ෂරතාව වැඩි කියලා මහ ලොකුවට කියනවා. සාක්ෂරතාව කියන්නේ තමන්ගේ නම ලිවීමට හා කියවීමට ඇති හැකියාවයි. සාක්ෂරතාව සහ බුද්ධි මට්ටම කියන්නේ හාත්පසින්ම වෙනස් දෙයක්. ඒ නිසා අපේ අධ්යාපන ක්රමවේද ගැන සතුටු වෙන්න බැහැ.</i></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i>බුද්ධි මට්ටම ගත්තාම මේවා ජාත්යන්තර ඒවා බටහිර දේවල් කියලා ඕනෑම කෙනෙක්ට කියන්න පුළුවන්. විවේචන කරන්න පුළුවන්. එහෙත් අපි ඉන්නේ කනගාටුදායක තත්ත්වයක. මේ මිණුම් දඬු ජාත්යන්තරය පිළිගන්නවා.</i></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i>මේ ගැන බොහෝ දේ අන්තර්ජාලයෙන් බලාගන්න පුළුවන්. බුද්ධි මට්ටම දර්ශකයක් තිබෙනවා. මෙය අපේ සමාජයේ අපේ රටේ හරස්කඩක්. </i></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i>අපි ඉන්නේ මන්දබුද්ධික මට්ටම් සීමාවේ. අපි තවත් පහළට ගියොත් මන්ද බුද්ධික මට්ටමට පත්වෙනවා. මේවා මම කියන දේවල් නෙමෙයි. අන්තර්ජාලයෙන් හෝ පත පොතින් මේ දේවල් බලන්න පුළුවන්. </i></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i>මගේ ස්වාමිපුරුෂයා විදේශිකයෙක්. ඔහුත් මේ දේවල් සම්බන්ධයෙන් උනන්දුයි. ඔහු අපේ රට දෙස බලන්නේ වෙනස් විදියකට. විදේශිකයෙක් විදියට. රටක් දියුණු කරන්නට සමාජ ස්ථර දෙකක් පිරිස් වර්ග දෙකක් අවශ්ය බව ඔහු කියනවා. එහෙත් ඒ කොට්ඨාශ දෙකම අපේ රටේ නැති නිසා අපේ රට දියුණු කරන්න බැහැ කියලා ඔහු කියනවා.</i></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i>මේ කොටස් දෙකෙන් පළමු වැන්නෝ චින්තකයෝ, දාර්ශනිකයෝ හා බුද්ධිමත්තු. ඔවුන්ට රටේ බැරි තත්ත්වයක් ඇති කරලා තියෙනවා. අනෙක් කොටස දුප්පත් ජනතාව. දරිද්රතාවයේ පහළම ඉන්න ජනතාව. ඔවුන්ට ඉවසන්න බැරිම තැන අරගල කරනවා.</i></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i>එහෙත් අරගල කරන්න මිනිස්සු නැහැ අපේ රටේ. හිතන්න මිනිස්සු නැහැ. දැක්මක් තිබෙන බුද්ධිමතුන් නැහැ. ඉහත කියපු ස්ථර දෙක නැතිනම් කොටස් දෙකම අපේ රටේ නැහැ. </i></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i>අපේ චින්තකයෝ, දාර්ශනිකයෝ, බුද්ධිමතුන් බොහෝමයක් රට අත්හැරලා ගිහින්. අපේ රටේ දුප්පත් ජනතාවගෙන් බොහෝමයක් මැද පෙරදිග හෝ වෙනත් රටවල ශ්රමික සේවයට ගිහින්. අපේ රටේ දැන් ඉන්නේ මැද ජනතාව නැතිනම් සාමාන්ය ජනතාව. ඔවුන් සාමාන්යයි. ඔවුන්ට ඕනෑම සාමාන්යය තත්ත්වයක ජීවත් වෙන්න පුළුවන්. ඔවුන්ට ගැටලුවක් නැහැ.</i></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i>දුප්පත් ජනතාව සිටියා නම් අරගල කරනවා. සාමාන්ය ජනතාව අතින් එය සිදුවන්නේ අඩුවෙන්. අපේ රටේ තාර්කිකව හිතන මිනිස්සු අඩුයි. හේතු සොයාගන්නා ඒවා සාධාරණීයකරණය කරන ඒ වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටින මිනිස්සු අඩුයි. අපේ ළමයි බුද්ධිමය අතින් ගැටලු රැසකට මුහුණ දී සිටිනවා. අපේ දරුවන්ව ඒ දේවල්වලින් මුදා ගන්න ඕනේ. ඒ සඳහා කළ යුතු බොහෝමයක් දේ තිබෙනවා.</i></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">අපිට වරදින්න ගොඩක් හේතු තිබෙනවා. අපේ අධ්යාපනය විශාල අර්බුදයකට ගිහින් තියෙනවා. වෙනත් රටවල විභාග ක්රම වෙනස්. අධ්යාපන ක්රම වෙනස්. ඒ අතින් බලද්දි අපි ඉන්නේ ගොඩාක් පහළින්. අපි තවත් බොහෝ දේවල් කළ යුතුයි. අපි ආකල්පය අතිනුත් විශාල පිරිහීමකට ලක්වෙලා” </strong>යැයි ද ආචාර්යවරිය තවදුරටත් කීය. </i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>දේශපාලකයන් හැසිරෙන ආකාරයෙන් සමාජයේ මිනිසුන් හැසිරෙන ආකාරයෙන් මේ ගැන හොඳ අවබෝධයක් ලබාගත හැකි බවත් ඉහත කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් පුදුමයට පත්විය යුතු නැති බවත් කැලණිය විශ්ව විද්යාලයේ මහාචාර්ය සුනන්ද මහේන්ද්ර මහතා මෙහිදි අදහස් දක්වමින් පැවැසීය.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Malithi_Web, Helvetica; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>කැලණිය විශ්ව විද්යාලයේ මහාචාර්ය චන්ද්රසිරි රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ඇතුළු තවත් පිරිසක් මෙම අවස්ථාවට සහභාගී වූහ. </i></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-71178300316794319742018-05-11T09:23:00.001-07:002018-05-11T09:23:46.115-07:00President J.R. Jayawardene’s famous Buriyani lunch in Maradana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5viPQtxcQZmY0U1bNjY6Ti7ZbWBia2wWEuZ0gcoCM1B1retFwShGjJr6bOJwCDl3edFQW-eheugN0FhENNw7DViOsI_EknU16Lh8Eo8DCYJx7CEcbyCaBkPu2F-WZ56vfAr3E1KGot85/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5viPQtxcQZmY0U1bNjY6Ti7ZbWBia2wWEuZ0gcoCM1B1retFwShGjJr6bOJwCDl3edFQW-eheugN0FhENNw7DViOsI_EknU16Lh8Eo8DCYJx7CEcbyCaBkPu2F-WZ56vfAr3E1KGot85/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Pandemonium at Hotel De Buhari Maradana as President Jayewardene invited journalists for a Buriyani feed</span></b></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br />Restaurant cashier tells President to wait 15 minutes for table</span></b></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br />Sudden motorcade stop was to thank journalists who omitted Minister Wickremasinghe’s statements against Indian PM Indira Gandhi</span></b></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #231f20; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shortly after former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s civic rights were removed following a judgment by the Supreme Court that she had violated the Land Reform Law, the United National Party (UNP) held five meetings to explain the matter to the people.</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #231f20;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One such meeting was held at the Kiribathgoda junction in the late seventies. Minister of Higher Education Ranil Wickremesinghe, present leader of the UNP, was criticising the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The head of the President’s Security Division, gangling six-footer, Senior Superintendent of Police Neil Weerasinghe, arrived at the ‘Press Box’ and requested me to see President J.R. Jayewardene.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #231f20;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I went on to the stage, President Jayewardene told me to inform all the reporters to ignore the part of the speech made by Minister Wickremesinghe stating that Mrs. Gandhi was a close friend of his and he didn’t want to create any misunderstanding. Reporters agreed to do so. “Those Were the Days”…all government politicians including the ones in the Opposition treated the press with respect and hardly a request came from a politician for publicity.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #231f20;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Always the ‘Press’ vehicles followed the President’s entourage as the traffic was cleared for his vehicles. Returning from the Kiribathgoda meeting the same day, however, the vehicles came to an abrupt halt closer to Maradana junction.</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Knowing how notorious Maradana was in the “Good Old Days” we reporters and photographers jumped out of the vehicles to a pleasant surprise where we were told the “Press” were invited for a ‘Buriyani Feed’ at the ‘Hotel de Buhari’.</span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">President Jayewardene, leading the pack of journalists and his security personnel, had a rude shock when the cashier told him that he would have to wait at least 15 minutes as the place was full. However, within minutes, the manager rushed in and saw the customer was none other than President Jayewardene, triggering a pandemonium at the Buhari Hotel. The unmoved President Jayewardene told the manager ‘don’t rush we can stay for a while’.</span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It all ended happily. We had a hearty Buriyani feed and President Jayewardene took out his long black wallet and paid the bill with a few hundred rupee notes. President Jayewardene’s buriyani feed was a gesture of gratitude to journalists who complied with his request not to publish the speech made by his young minister Ranil Wickremesinghe criticising Indira Gandhi.</span></i></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Syndicated)</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #231f20; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<br /></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-91569881803839223502018-05-11T09:06:00.001-07:002018-05-11T09:06:50.174-07:00Sri Lanka to probe forex dealers after printing money<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_pfBQrXe4lrbzuv3fM7olaVEFAcbayAnYgJrSBw1lt7yte7Vofhyphenhyphen_sRj2czCG_77kEy6bXCK1imCDA0TxohcpqVXkBfzNM35_KTJwaSKAw5yc0sIG_J_xaUZ3lIybzeWodpVQUfoi6eV/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_pfBQrXe4lrbzuv3fM7olaVEFAcbayAnYgJrSBw1lt7yte7Vofhyphenhyphen_sRj2czCG_77kEy6bXCK1imCDA0TxohcpqVXkBfzNM35_KTJwaSKAw5yc0sIG_J_xaUZ3lIybzeWodpVQUfoi6eV/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's central bank would probe market transactions Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy said after the rupee fell sharply in late April and May after a bout of money printing by the central bank to enforce low rates.<br /><br />The central bank has spent 136.5 million dollars intervening, but about 30 million dollars had also been purchased, he said.<br /><br />The central bank would look at transactions in the market to understand the nature of deals, Governor Coomaraswamy said.<br /><br />The central bank wanted to give more flexibility to the market, but participants have to respond accordingly, he said.<br /><br />Long-time central bank watchers however have pointed out earlier that the central bank's trigger happy domestic operations department and its tendency terminate repo deals and inject money is at the heart of balance payments trouble in Sri Lanka.</span></i></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Analysts also say banks that borrow from reverse repo auctions and windows and give credit with printed money creates demand pressure.<br /><br />Banks that give loans with window cash, or primary dealers who bid for securities auctions with window cash) may also put pressure on the currency by overtrading.</span></i></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The central bank has spent 100 million dollars in unsterilized interventions, effectively mopping up about 15 billion rupees it printed to create the panic in the rupee. Emerging information also seem to show that a repayment of maturing government debt in the first week of April may also have been re-financed with created money.<br /><br />Governor Coomaraswamy says the central bank wants to look at all aspects.</span></i></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Latest data showed that private credit surged to 122 billion rupees in March, up form around 60 rupees billion a month earlier. If banks make loans with printed money the rupee will come under pressure.</span></i></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #121212; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No forex dealer, or even an investor like George Soros can bring down a currency unless the domestic operations of the central bank gives new money to speculate against a currency peg.</span></i></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-54374652651441484012018-05-11T07:58:00.002-07:002018-05-11T07:58:31.383-07:00ශ්රීලනිපය කණපිට හරවන වෙනසට ජනපති දින දෙයි - 16 කල්ලියේ නායකත්වය සුසිල්ට<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaKt-A7pTv70_11Vj8zq4pShW4sWBkk4NG5JX7PmolGvnEV-x6_Olmiu1FWvDXONlQob03B6WecIVUTg2Wa2SreNlSi4ge2N3H9UrjVhRBrCWtJu9YRowIhD5OWL-gwTi8NG5sWdmvZFvj/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaKt-A7pTv70_11Vj8zq4pShW4sWBkk4NG5JX7PmolGvnEV-x6_Olmiu1FWvDXONlQob03B6WecIVUTg2Wa2SreNlSi4ge2N3H9UrjVhRBrCWtJu9YRowIhD5OWL-gwTi8NG5sWdmvZFvj/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත් වී විපක්ෂයේ අසුන්ගත් ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ 16 දෙනා වෙනුවෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ පක්ෂ නායක රැස්වීම් සඳහා පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රි සුසිල් ප්රේම්ජයන්ත මහතා යැවීමට තීරණය කර තිබේ.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">මෙම තීරණයට ජනාධිපති මෛත්රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතාගේ එකඟතාව හිමිවූ බවත් එම තීරණය කථානායක කරු ජයසූරිය මහතාට දැනුම් දෙන බවත් ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ මාධ්ය ප්රකාශක, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රි ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා මහතා ප්රකාශ කළේය.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ඒ අනුව ඉදිරි පක්ෂ නායක රැස්වීම් සඳහා තම කණ්ඩායම වෙනුවෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රි සුසිල් ප්රේම්ජයන්ත මහතා සහභාගි වන බව මන්ත්රීවරයා පැවසී ය.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">මේ අතර ඉරාන සංචාරය නිම කර පැමිණි පසුව මැයි මස 17 වැනිදා ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ ප්රතිසංවිධාන ක්රියාවලිය ආරම්භ කිරීම සඳහා පක්ෂයේ මධ්යම කාරක සභාව එදිනට කැඳවීමට ජනාධිපති මෛත්රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා තීරණය කර ඇත.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රි කණ්ඩායම සමඟ ඊයේ (10) ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේදී පැවැති විශේෂ සාකච්ඡාවකදී ජනාධිපතිවරයා මේ බව ප්රකාශ කර ඇතැයි වාර්තා වේ.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">පක්ෂයේ ප්රතිසංවිධාන ක්රියාවලිය සිදුකිරීම සඳහා මැයි මස 17 වැනිදා මධ්යම කාරක සභාව මඟින් ප්රතිසංවිධාන කමිටුවක් පත්කිරීමට තීරණය කර තිබේ.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">මැයි මස 17 වැනිදා සිට මාසයක් ඇතුළත මෙම ප්රතිසංවිධාන කටයුතු සිදුකර අවසන් කිරීමට ජනාධිපතිවරයා තීරණය කර ඇත.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවේ සිටින සහ විපක්ෂයේ සිටින ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ සියලුම ජනතා නියෝජිතයන් එක් වී පක්ෂයේ ප්රතිසංවිධාන ක්රියාවලිය සාර්ථක කරගැනීම සඳහා එක්ව කටයුතු කරන ලෙසටද ජනාධිපති මෛත්රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා මෙහිදී ඉල්ලා ඇතැයි ආරංචි මාර්ග සඳහන් කළේය.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ශ්රීලනිපය ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත් වෙයි?</span></i></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">කෙසේ වෙතත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රි, ශ්රීලනිප ජ්යෙෂ්ඨ උප සභාපති ඩබ්.ඩී.ජේ. සෙනවිරත්න මහතා පවසන්නේ ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය සම්මුතිවාදී ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත් විය යුතු බවට ලබන 15 වැනිදා ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ මධ්යමකාරක සභාවට යෝජනාවක් ගෙන ඒමට බලාපොරොත්තු වන බවයි.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">එහි ප්රතිඵලය අනුව ඉදිරි පියවර තීරණය කරන බවත් සඳහන් කළ මන්ත්රීවරයා 15 වැනිදාට ගෙනෙන එම යෝජනාව ජයග්රහණය කළ හැකි යැයි කියා විශාල බලාපොරොත්තුවක් තිබෙන බවත් එසේ වුවහොත් ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය සම්මුතිවාදී ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත් වෙන බවත් කියා සිටියේය.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>From Asian Mirror</b></span></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-61371958187496695562018-05-10T03:27:00.001-07:002018-05-10T03:27:34.975-07:00WHY THE FEAR AND WHEN CAN WE EXPECT ANSWERS ?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB8dEl9PiGHHxElIb1RLF6eIX5kOXlApQoS459mAJtU9ngCJzt5zHmg_s8g5mGY_dBynSoX95a7YBhyYdmCPIRW7oREqIYzMtswX376VQotzw6DD8Wpex4YwO3fkCv6d-BPmR9tRegjWAR/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="620" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB8dEl9PiGHHxElIb1RLF6eIX5kOXlApQoS459mAJtU9ngCJzt5zHmg_s8g5mGY_dBynSoX95a7YBhyYdmCPIRW7oREqIYzMtswX376VQotzw6DD8Wpex4YwO3fkCv6d-BPmR9tRegjWAR/s400/Capture.PNG" width="341" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">The Cabinet has been shuffled and reshuffled but no one is happy! The burning question is why are they so afraid to give Law and Order to Sarath Fonseka? Let’s take a look at the President’s Chief of Staff facing violent corruption charges and sabotage of US$100 MILLION FOR OVER 2 YEARS, MANIPULATION OF DISCARDED MACHINERY SCRAP IRON ETC, AND YET WAS MADE CHIEF OF STAFF! WHAT A HIDEOUS GAFF! Why are all these known corruptions and sabotages set aside and positions of power given to these rogues? It smacks of the position of Finance Minister being given to Ravi K! The Heads seem to thrive in having them around! Mahanama and Dissanayake were apparently produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate and remanded till May 9 pending further </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">investigation. The question here is, despite this knowledge, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">why were they given such positions of power? Who is hiding what? I guess we will never know! Mahanama had blocked both projects in regard to the Kantale Sugar Factory. Following negotiations, Mahanama and Dissanayake had agreed to accept the 100 million in installments! Initiate a SCAM and wham, you are in business, or so it seems from things that are happening in this country! Mahanama had purposely thwarted the joint venture undertaken by M.G. SUGARS LANKA (PVT) LTD., AND SRI LANKA FOR REVIVAL AND RESTRUCTION OF THE KANTALE SUGAR FACTORY! </span></span></i><br />
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While all the other SCAMS remain unresolved, we have another new one on our hands! But, that is not enough, the price of Milk Powder, Gas and other products have also risen and the beauty of it is they seem to be rising, bit by bit, little by little! Let’s not hit the people with all that we are trying to give them, let’s do it gradually so they feel how thoughtful and kind-hearted we are!<br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px;" /> </span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Yahalpalana leaders are aware of all that is happening in the country but they don’t seem to give a damn! They are only interested in what can be GOT before TIME runs out! Make no mistake, the President who is now saying he will not resign in 2020, is the same man, the very same man, who promised to do away with the Executive Presidency in 100 days! Didn’t someone say “ABSOLUTE POWER, CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY”! We have a glaring example in front of us today but what are we going to do about it? What should we do about it? We can’t ask them to do the EXEMPLARY THING AND RESIGN, which in reality they should have done long ago! The country is in chaos, the Cabinet is in a bigger chaos, and we seem to be thriving on SCAMS! Why don’t the people demand answers? People power is what we have, it is our power that put these rogues into POWER which they are now using to their own personal advantage!!! In the Philippines, when the people had enough of the desecration of power, they came out on the streets and threw Ferdinand Marcos out! Absolute unmitigated People Power! Why can’t our people do the same here??? THROW THEM ALL OUT, HAVE A GENERAL ELECTION AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT???</span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Zzx12JzAym9uDZr_8VD6vTiy3kDzJwUUE98auzeUGuTrAdRjjgAOtReFAy7LEfNYTxvDQkSB8fUsbURwl2u_ke1sq7ToeMTV-M55I7p1g_OZRgk2W5Ipeaw2tiCRIcVs7RTVESi1XRhQ/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Zzx12JzAym9uDZr_8VD6vTiy3kDzJwUUE98auzeUGuTrAdRjjgAOtReFAy7LEfNYTxvDQkSB8fUsbURwl2u_ke1sq7ToeMTV-M55I7p1g_OZRgk2W5Ipeaw2tiCRIcVs7RTVESi1XRhQ/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last week, they laid Dr. Lester James Peiris to rest! What a man among men he was, a doyen if ever there was one, yet they had to wait for him to die before they sang his praises! People of the culture, the finesse and men among men that they were, will never grace this country again! All we have are uncultured ‘Yakkos’ with no education, no culture, no background. To emphasize the immortal words of John Kennedy, we must now say: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” We must indeed ask what we can do for our country as those who were elected with the sacred trust are doing NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FOR THE COUNTRY, JUST ONLY FOR THEMSELVES! </span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have talked about SCAMS, so many of them, CHILD ABUSE AND THE PUNISHMENT SUCH ABUSE DESERVES, and then we read that a young girl from a Home for Girls has been ABUSED OVER 16 TIMES! WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT IT? Why are these maniacs allowed to get away with this? What is happening in our Justice System? Why does not someone with a spine get up and say “COME DOWN HARD ON THESE PERVERTS, GIVE THEM A PUNISHMENT THEY WILL NEVER FORGET; BECAUSE FOR SURE, THAT POOR GIRL, IS NEVER EVER GOING TO FORGET THAT SHE WAS RAPED! Do we do anything? ‘NO!’ Probably send the pervert to jail to live a life of common place luxury, while this poor girl has to live with the horrifying nightmare of THE FACT THAT SHE WAS RAPED REPEATEDLY! It is not a nightmare that will easily go away, so she has to learn to live with it because you see it is imprinted on her subconscious forever! It is not just RAPE that is rampant, MURDERS TOO. Continuously we are told “STERN ACTION WILL BE TAKEN!” WHEN AND WHERE? IT IS A LONG TIME COMING! Forget the politicians, what is the Judiciary about? Don’t they realize there is no LAW AND ORDER in <br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px;" />the country?</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px;" />Unless we, the people of this country stand up and demand what is our inalienable right, nothing is going to happen. We need to work together as brothers and sisters, as one family, to bring this country to the paradise it was in the days gone by. When anyone and everyone could move about freely with no fear, when children went unharmed, when murders took place just once or were never heard of. Selfishness, Greediness, Inhumanity and most of all MAN’S INHUMANITY TO MAN MUST CEASE, IF WE ARE TO CALL THIS COUNTRY “PARADISE” AGAIN!</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">From Daily Mirror</span></b><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </i></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-50580988884914864852018-05-05T01:14:00.000-07:002018-05-05T01:14:25.669-07:00Sweet deal turns sour for Sri Lanka President<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd8l6sGMWGf0unOhuN8BjzSW4OytNPtNnSFPWjFCxVoNszGxm6q3xBZc9mcMk_vNOtnsqlqrkm8J_FD6pUzguJAsMIy4WiVLONczgN_-6L0O7DKit1uFEt0qM0Fj9M393spyQcm00WMzwq/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd8l6sGMWGf0unOhuN8BjzSW4OytNPtNnSFPWjFCxVoNszGxm6q3xBZc9mcMk_vNOtnsqlqrkm8J_FD6pUzguJAsMIy4WiVLONczgN_-6L0O7DKit1uFEt0qM0Fj9M393spyQcm00WMzwq/s1600/Capture.PNG" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>ECONOMYNEXT – </b></span><span style="font-family: helvetica neue, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The arrest of the President’s Chief of Staff while allegedly accepting a 20 million bribe may have seriously damaged Maithripala Sirisena ’s image and weakened his position within the tenuous coalition.</span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Sirisena was reportedly visibly shaken when a senior aide told him on Thursday that his Chief of Staff I. H. M. Mahanama had been caught a few minutes earlier while counting 20 million rupees at the Taj Samudra car park given by an Indian investor in the Kantale Sugar factory which has been put up for privatistion.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">"May ape Mahanama?! (Our Mahanama?)" the president reportedly asked twice, not believing that his trusted aide had been arrested following a sting operation four weeks in the making.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Mahanama retired recently from the Ministry of Lands where he was secretary and he is regarded as the key figure who had allegedly obstructed the Indo-Singaporean joint venture that wants to invest $100 million in the defunct Kantale Sugar factory.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Following his retirement last month, Mahanama was chosen to be Sirisena’s Chief of Staff because of the long association between the two men, official sources said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The second man arrested along with Mahanama on Thursday was Piyadasa Dissanayake, the Chairman of the State Timber Corporation. That appointment was also made by Sirisena as Minister of Environment.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The two men had initially demanded 540 million rupees to sweeten the sugar deal for the Indian and Singapore investors, but later reduced their “fee” to 100 million, according to the bribery detectives. The two men were receiving the first tranche of 20 million rupees when they were caught.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">“The President was informed about the involvement of some officials in his secretariat, but he did not know who the target was until the arrest,” an official involved in the sting said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The President’s office issued a statement on Thursday night in a bid to deflect responsibility. In his rush, he may have also inadvertently convicted the two men even before they were formally charged.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The president “advised the authorities to strictly enforce the law against the two offenders,” the president’s statement said, virtually pronouncing them guilty.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">However, political sources say the incident is a major setback for Sirisena who is embroiled in a cold-war power struggle with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Sirisena had used the Central Bank bond scam to discredit Wickremesinghe’s United National Party, arguing that the fugitive former central bank governor Arjuna Mahendran was a nominee of the Prime Minister.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The tables have now turned. By Sirisena’s own logic, he should accept responsibility for Mahanama taking a bribe from a foreign investor. Sirisena was dislodged from his moral high ground last month following reports that his daughter had obtained a liquor licence although he himself had restored a ban on women buying or serving liquor at restaurants. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The sugar deal that went sour is only making things worse for Sirisena.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Private anti-corruption activist Keerthi Thennakoon questioned why Mahanama was made President’s Chief of Staff despite long-standing allegations of corruption against him from his days at the Lands Ministry.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Sirisena attempted to discredit the UNP over the bond scam, but the sugar scandal could be a blot on Sirisena’s record and strengthen allegations of other wrong doings including in the purchase of a naval craft from Russia. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The Presidential Secretariat has denied any wrong doing in buying a vessel from Russia at a cost of over $100 million, but Sirisena’s high officials being implicated in corruption could raise fresh questions about other transactions too. </span>Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-15221580013577131802018-05-04T04:49:00.000-07:002018-05-04T04:49:23.601-07:00EPF Office: Beneficiaries subjected to a lot of inconvenience<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtsTiFGzEjHwYFtt9qQTvYJv1LzIQGiqMEH2k3OEhn5_aNlPrnY46ECV9SJX1N8nw2YaJ35_4zoMmKd-XkK6q4dmGn5VY8oTRFTd3ELnsVqSwZXFbxcbKyupWKMmoPQcz5QCSowBlDC5wi/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="520" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtsTiFGzEjHwYFtt9qQTvYJv1LzIQGiqMEH2k3OEhn5_aNlPrnY46ECV9SJX1N8nw2YaJ35_4zoMmKd-XkK6q4dmGn5VY8oTRFTd3ELnsVqSwZXFbxcbKyupWKMmoPQcz5QCSowBlDC5wi/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">By Aruna Jayatilleke - Sunday Times</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I spent three days at the Labour Department trying to hand over the EPF benefits claim and in the interest of thousands of others who would be filing their claims, I thought of relating the inconvenience that one goes through.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></span>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I took the claim form and went to the Labour Department ground floor counter along with a statement of fund availability collected from the Central Bank (CB), with accurate details in it, i.e. correct name, correct employer/employee number and with my NIC number on each statement. On February 14, 2018 at around 9 am after checking the records, the counter clerk said that though the monies have been deposited in my name by the CB, there are some records missing in the Labour Department system. Remember, none of the errors was attributed to either employer or employee!</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to the counter clerk on the ground floor where applications are accepted, though the funds are available in my name, no money would be released till these “errors” are corrected no matter what difficulties the innocent retiree has to go through – in my case at 60 years of age.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was asked to go to the 9th floor (central filing section) to do a “RN check”. At this point, there was a huge crowd of people waiting patiently. On top of that a security person was trying to control the people while there was no clear explanation on the process and directing them to relevant officers.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bolder;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Affluent people breaking queues</span></i></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bolder;"></span>The number I got was 49 and by 12 noon only number 22 had entered the internal lines in front of different tables. It was very disturbing to see how some were trying to break the queue and these “ill-mannered” persons included well-dressed men and women with an air of affluence. After waiting patiently for my turn, I finally entered the room around 3.10 pm but there were still about 8-9 people around one clerk. Only two officers had been assigned to handle the work on rotation basis while a large crowd waited. You need more than two officers to deal with public complaints on the 9th floor.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since I was the person (involved in HR) who handled the EPF registrations with the department in all the companies I have worked in respect of the claims, I was confident there were no errors on my part or by my employers.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have in the past handed over the A, B, H forms to the EPF department for due registration, and each time after 3-4 months I used to collect the registered B cards after visiting the department.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What had apparently happened was that the officers in the department have randomly entered those documents in their registers allocated for each employer which was not the proper way.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Due to these inefficiencies, innocent retirees are compelled to run from one department to another or go back to their former employers, to start the process from the beginning by re-doing the A-B-H forms to correct the department’s faults.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As far as the employer and employee concerned, the documentation I produced had been done accurately and I had the registered B cards with me from all my past employment. I explained to the counter clerk the fault was with the EPF department. This was when I was able to speak to the officer around 3.40 pm and when he asked me what my issue was. I requested him to give a solution for what the ground floor officer had asked for in the internal document. My issue was about amalgamation error in one of five EPF numbers and another issue involving two other numbers.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I saw the tension on the face of the officer with overwhelming demands and unresolved issues of the people. He too was helpless. He asked me to come on another day that he will look into it. I also must give due credit to the officer who did the work from morning till 2 pm working at a stretch who and going out to lunch only at 2 pm.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Knowing how the department works I met another officer known to me and asked for help in the matter before going home.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bolder;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pregnant women forced to wait</span></i></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two days later my contact said the said documents were untraceable. Luckily I had captured copies of all my documents on my phone and on February 16 went to the department at sharp 8.30 am. My number was 35 but the line moved slower than the previous day. There were over 75 people, some carrying children, some pregnant, some in crutches and some walking with the aid of a helper, etc.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Department officers passing are not bothered or concerned by those standing in the line and checking on their welfare. After all this is public money that we are talking about and staff of the department are paid from funds that come from us. EPF claimants should be treated with respect instead of abuse, harassment and compelled to plead with officials.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At a 4th floor office where I had to go, the section is mostly females and there a group of about 10 employees were either enjoying a cup of Yoghurt for dessert, collecting money for a function, reading papers or chatting while the public patiently waited.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because my papers couldn’t be found (no fault of mine), I was compelled to go back to the 9th floor and to the original officer whose advice was to get a direction from an officer on the 8th floor.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The 8th floor officer was kind and understanding but had to follow the process and after several more steps, they promised to give me a proper update.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On February 22, I was back in the office, I was informed that some errors had been corrected but was told to get a new set of forms completed by one of my former employers.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this point I appealed to the earlier kind officer and explained the hassle of walking several floors up and down. She tried to help and asked a 9th floor officer to attend to my matter.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eventually after a long struggle of three days, I was able to handover my claim form but yet to see whether all my monies would be returned to me safely as expected of them.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the Labour Department there are notice boards informing of a monthly religious programme inviting employees to take part during valuable office hours running for two hours, adding more unproductive time for these clock watchers. Those who approve this type of nonsense are engaging in a crime!</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if I was living far away out of Colombo and in having an illness, etc? How many people go through this ordeal on a daily basis without being able to voice their issue?</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope this article will reach the Minister, Commissioner of Labour and his deputies, and action taken to formulate ways and means to simplify the process, if the fault lies in the hands of the department. These government departments are huge white elephants and should be privatised so that all stakeholders get a decent and speedy service. Claimants should be treated with more respect particularly since it’s their money that sustains departments like this.</span></i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">(This is a first person account of a person who experienced this inconvenience. He can be reached at arunajaya2018@gmail.com)</span></span></span></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-20847970317729136742018-05-04T03:11:00.001-07:002018-05-04T03:11:43.459-07:00කන්තලේ සීනි සමාගම ඉන්දියානු සමාගමකට දෙන්න ජනාධිපති ගමරාළ කෝටි 54 ක් ඉල්ලලා; කෝටි 10 කට එකඟ වෙලා; ඇඩ්වාන්ස් කෝටි 2ක් ගනිද්දී ජනාධිපති කාර්ය මණ්ඩල ප්රධානියා සහ දැව සංස්ථා සභාපති අල්ලස් නිලධාරීන්ට මාට්ටු..<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg05DfZMVVEqkyHkz5vA40IWniOde9jP5pUUL0PkHT15HI87m1L1C-3h6qgR8GgBL5vx0Uw_notRn_w838nB-qL2KyUmtrBUboA1q52pg30JnQuLgbKeygge3Ik28wfoaGj6PQygwsFawoS/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="661" data-original-width="1027" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg05DfZMVVEqkyHkz5vA40IWniOde9jP5pUUL0PkHT15HI87m1L1C-3h6qgR8GgBL5vx0Uw_notRn_w838nB-qL2KyUmtrBUboA1q52pg30JnQuLgbKeygge3Ik28wfoaGj6PQygwsFawoS/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700;">කොළඹ තාජ් සමුද්රා හෝටලයේ දී අද සවස රුපියල් කෝටි 2 ක් අල්ලස් ගනිද්දී අත් අඩංගුවට ගත් ජනාධිපති පල්ලෙවත්ත ගමරාළගේ සමීපතම නිළධාරීන් දෙදෙනා අල්ලස් ගෙන ඇත්තේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ මෙහෙයැවීම සහ අනුදැනුම මත බව ලංකා ඊ නිව්ස් වෙත අනාවරණය වී තිබේ. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-weight: 700;"><i>අත් අඩංගුවට ගත් නිළධාරීන් දෙදෙනා නම් ජනාධිපති පල්ලෙවත්ත ගමරාළගේ කාර්ය මණ්ඩල ප්රධානී ආචාර්ය අයි. එච්. කේ. මහානාම සහ ජනාධිපතිවරයා යටතේ පවතින රාජ්ය දැව සංස්ථාවේ සභාපති පී. දිසානායක දෙදෙනා ය.</i></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>මහානාම නමැත්තා පෙර ඉඩම් අමාත්යාංශයේ ස්ථිර ලේකම් ලෙස කටයුතු කළ අතර එහිදීද පගා මරුවෙක් ලෙස ප්රකට විය. මීට මාස දෙකකට පමණ පෙර ඔහු විශ්රාම ගනු ලැබිණ. ඉන් පසුව ඔහුට සේවා දිගුවක් දී ජනාධිපති කාර්ය මණ්ඩල ප්රධානී ලෙස පත් කර තමන් වෙත ගත්තේ ජනාධිපති ගමරාළ විසිනි. එහිදී ඔහු කීවේ හොඳම නිලධාරියා තමා වෙත ගත් බවයි. </i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-weight: 700;"><i>මහානාම සහ දිසානායක අල්ලස් ලබා ගෙන ඇත්තේ කන්තලේ සීනි කර්මාන්ත ශාලාව ඉන්දියානු ව්යාපාරිකයෙකුට පවරා දීම සඳහා අවශ්ය කැබිනට් අනුමැතිය ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලවා අරන් දීම සඳහා ය. ජනාධිපතිවරයාට දිය යුතුයැයි කියා ඉල්ලා ඇති අල්ලස් මුදල රුපියල් මිලියන 540 ක් හෙවත් රු. කෝටි 54 කි. පසුව එම මුදල රු. මිලියන 100 ක් හෙවත් රු. කෝටි 10 ක් දක්වා අඩුකර තිබේ. ඉන් අත්තිකාරම් ලෙස රු. මිලියන 20 ක් හෙවත් කෝටි 2 ක් ගනිද්දී අල්ලස් හෝ දූෂණ කොමිසමේ නිලධාරීන් විසින් අද සවස අත් අඩංගුවට ගන්නා ලදී. මෙකී නිලධාරීන් දෙදෙනා අල්ලස් මුදල් ලබා ගෙන ගණන් හිලව් නිවැරදි දැයි බැලීම සඳහා දෙවරක් ගණන් කර ඇති අතර දෙවන වර ගණන් කරද්දී අල්ලා ගෙන තිබේ.</i></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-weight: 700;"><i>මෙම අල්ලස් ගණුදෙනුවෙන් ඉතාම හොඳින් පැහැදිලි වන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා මීට සම්බන්ධ බවයි. මන්ද යත් නිලධාරීන්ට කැබිනට් අනුමැතිය ලබා ගත නොහැකිය. එය ලබා ගත හැක්කේ ජනාධිපතිට පමණි. තමන්ට කළ නොහැකි දෙයක් වෙනුවෙන් නිලධාරියෙකු අල්ලස් ගන්නේ නැත. ඒ අනුව මෙම නිලධාරීන් අල්ලස් ගෙන ඇත්තේ ජනාධිපති ගමරාළගේ මෙහෙයැවීම සහ අනුදැනුම මත බව ඉතා හොඳින් පැහැදිලිය. සත්ය වශයෙන්ම ජනාධිපති ගමරාළ දැන් ඉල්ලා අස්විය යුතුය. </i></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>ජනාධිපති ගමරාළ විසින් රුසියානු යුද නැවක් මිලදී ගැනීමෙන් රු. කෝටි සිය ගණනක කොමිස් මුදලක් ගන්නා බව ලංකා ඊ නිව්ස් විසින් පළමු වරට හෙළි කෙළේය. පොළොන්නරුවේ සාමාන්ය ස්ටුඩියෝවක් තිබූ දුව සහ බෑණා මේ වන විට කෝටි ප්රකෝටිපතියන් වී ඇති බවද බෑණා පළඳින්නේ මිලියන ගණන් අධික ඇඳුම් ආයිත්තම් බවද ලංකා ඊ නිව්ස් හෙළි කෙළේය. මේ හෙළිදරව් කිරීම් නිසා කිපුණු ජනාධිපති ගමරාළ ලංකාවේ ජනතාවට ලංකා ඊ නිව්ස් වෙත පිවිසීම නීති විරෝධීව බ්ලොක් කෙළේය. </i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<i>අද සිද්ධියද හෙළිදරව් වීම වළකා යට ගැසීමට ජනාධිපති ගමරාළ විසින් මහත් වෙහෙසක් ගත් නමුත් ලංකා ඊ නිව්ස් ප්රථම වරට මෙය හෙළිදරව් කිරීම හේතුවෙන් යට ගැසීම වැළකිණ. මේ සඳහා කැපවූ අල්ලස් හෝ දූෂණ කොමිසමේ වැටලීම් කළ නිලධාරීන්ගේ නිර්භයකමට සහ ඍජු අවංක භාවයට මෙන්ම සැබෑ දේශප්රේමීයත්වයට සමස්ථ රටවැසියන්ම සදා ගරු කළ යුතුය.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">(</b><b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">ලංකා ඊ නිව්ස් -2018.මැයි.03, ප.ව.6.00 -දෙවන සහ නිවැරදි සංස්කරණය ප.ව.8.30)</b></div>
Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3337100579671252175.post-43988068655430621792018-05-02T20:05:00.001-07:002018-05-02T20:05:42.422-07:00Sri Lanka tour operators raises red flag over illegal hotels<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg30QrWpVTC3jWETatf_voh7oxHIWZ2o4MrZuho2rZwYKEJJjc7Ftqpr87cNYiNAT-PcNUI91thAMK8w92a4CChC9NBvzhsry7eAo043Uky7k0c53NPFonOW1L69hQDokzr_7CKOv-Ghyphenhyphen-X/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="735" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg30QrWpVTC3jWETatf_voh7oxHIWZ2o4MrZuho2rZwYKEJJjc7Ftqpr87cNYiNAT-PcNUI91thAMK8w92a4CChC9NBvzhsry7eAo043Uky7k0c53NPFonOW1L69hQDokzr_7CKOv-Ghyphenhyphen-X/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">ECONOMYNEXT -</span></b> <i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sri Lanka's tour operators have protested a decision by a regulatory agency not to take action against hotels built on the coast illegally, which could be contributing to the rise in crime against tourists, saying it will harm the image of the country.</span></i></span><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">The Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tourist Operators (SLAITO) said after a brutal attack on tourists at a beach bar in Mirissa, it was decided to remove unauthorized constructions on the beach.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">However the Coast Conversation Department, which is under President Maithripala Sirisena had been later been ordered to halt the removal of the illegal hotels in Mirissa and Weligama beaches, apparently on orders from above, according to reports.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"SLAITO members are disappointed to hear about the suspension as this issue is being monitored by tour operators who are waiting to see a swift response from authorities as they are responsible for the safety of tourists they send to Sri Lanka," the association said in a statement.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Reports said some of the illegal constructions and bad service to tourists belong to politically powerful individuals directly or indirectly connected to local authorities, some of whom are new to the industry.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">In Tangalle local politicians and their henchmen had been arrested for killing a British tourist and raping his girlfriend.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"The illegal establishments identified for removal are a compliance and safety risk and have resulted in creating a dangerous and unsafe perception of Sri Lanka tourism," SLAITO said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"This is probably the worst public relations for the country at a time when the government is relying on the tourism sector to bring in precious foreign exchange. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"SLAITO entreats the Government to proceed with the initial decision, as not coming down hard and strong on such attacks against tourists will effectively kill the industry and keep tourists away for fear of more such attacks. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"Undoubtedly, by suspending the effective and punitive measures that were taken, other disruptive elements will be emboldened to copy such attacks which go against the culture and hospitality of Sri Lanka itself.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"At a time when the country is striving to earn foreign exchange, the growing influx of tourists not only supports the economy but also creates livelihoods for many along the supply chain. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"Therefore, any leniency in implementing the law, especially in a high profile case such as this; which has received worldwide attention, will result in negative word-of-mouth publicity that will take years to correct. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"However, if swift and decisive action is taken at Mirissa as publicly announced by the Minister of Law and Order to remove illegal establishments, coupled with punitive action against the culprits, it will send out a strong message to the world that Sri Lanka respects tourists and that their safety is of paramount importance."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #121212;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">Analysts say Sri Lanka does not have a independent civil service and it has led to a deterioration of rule of law.</span></span></i>Lutronmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01850056751883198401noreply@blogger.com0