- College of Anaesthesiologists and Intensivists President Dr Anoma Perera says the health sector will face a serious crisis soon if shortages of medicines, surgical equipment and chemicals used in labs, are not addressed now: laments most essential drugs used by anesthesiologists have run out.
- CB Governor Dr Nandalal Weerasinghe says inflation is “likely” to come down below 10% by end-2023: in May’22, Weerasinghe asserted the economy will stabilise in Aug’22: Weerasinghe has maintained very high interest rates and followed a fixed exchange rate policy since 12May’22: he has also been a key figure in the “sovereign debt default” of 12Apr’22 which was announced in less than a week since taking office.
- Central Bank says Workers’ Remittances have increased by 68.8% to USD 437 mn in Jan’23 compared to USD 259 mn in Jan’22.
- Naval operation underway to return 14 Pilot Whales that beached themselves along the coastline of Kalpitiya, back to deeper waters: however, Navy says 3 whales have died.
- President Ranil Wickremasinghe vests the Jaffna Cultural Centre built on a grant by India, to the people: ceremony conducted in the presence of Indian State Fisheries Minister Dr L Murugan: MP Selvarajah Kajendren and 17 others arrested for entering a high security zone in Jaffna while staging a protest in violation of a Court order.
- Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva lauds President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Policy statement: says the President spoke the truth and analysed the political and economic situation in the country correctly departing from traditional politics.
- Ministers Wijeydasa Rajapakshe and Ali Sabri who are members of the Cabinet Sub-committee on Coal Procurement, resign as Subcommittee members: reason attributed is that “officials involved in coal procurement have not only distorted the facts in the latest coal procurement deal of 720,000 10%± MT of Coal for the Lakvijaya Power Plant in Puttalam, from Jan’23 to the end of Apr’23, but have also failed to omit the condition that they agreed to with the coal supplier M/s Global PT Arista Mitra Jaya of Indonesia”.
- Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith says the root cause for Sri Lanka’s situation at present is the moral collapse, and not just economic collapse: laments people have lost all sense of justice: blames the introduction of the “open economy” as the reason the country became a largely dependent economy.
- Govt, with the support of the Ceylon Tea Exporters donates a consignment of “Ceylon Tea” to the Ambassador of Türkiye in Colombo to be delivered to the victims of the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye.
- Treasury decides to scrap the entertainment allowance given to district secretaries, additional district secretaries and divisional secretaries: decision said to follow numerous complaints of misuse of the allowances of Rs.15,000 to a district secretary and Rs.10,000 to an additional district secretary covering bills incurred for tea, coffee and snacks.
