- Cumulative earnings of 281 listed companies suffer massive decline of 44% in the quarter ended Dec’22: first time since 2020: big losing segments were Capital Goods (-82.6%), Transportation (-87.0%), Telecommunications (-226.8%), & Diversified Financials (-38.9%).
- Finance Ministry instructs all ministries, provincial councils, departments, district secretariats, state corporations, statutory boards and state-owned enterprises to immediately implement the long overdue electronic Govt Procurement (e-GP) system, in keeping with an IMF requirement.
- Agriculture Ministry Secretary Gunadasa Samarasinghe asks the Chinese Embassy for details of a Chinese animal breeding company which had sought to obtain 100,000 toque macaques reportedly for zoos in China.
- President Ranil Wickremesinghe says the country’s balance of payments is not currently favourable: asserts steps are being taken “to implement reforms and restructuring to create opportunities for growth”: also says the next immediate action is to present the IMF arrangement to Parliament and request its support: promises to have the growth agenda ready next month.
- Survey conducted by the National Physical Planning Dept shows urbanisation has increased to 45% in 2022 from 18.5% in 2012: rapid population growth and a hike in migration of people from rural areas attributed as the reasons.
- Five persons (three female and two male) found hacked to death in a house in the Delft area in Jaffna: another female hospitalised with serious cut injuries: no arrests thus far: investigations underway.
- Youth, 21, who was arrested for giving an anonymous false tip-off to the police about a possible bomb threat in the Akurana area, remanded until May 4.
- Energy Ministry withdraws its own Cabinet paper on revised feed-in tariffs for renewable energy after deciding it is too complicated: Federation of Renewable Energy Developers Vice President Manjula Perera says despite the Govt’s pledge to generate 70% of electricity through renewable sources by 2030, new projects are blocked by the continued failure to introduce a viable tariff.
- Human Rights Commission summons representatives of Tri-forces in relation to the investigations into the torching of President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s private residence on 9 July 2022.
- New commemorative stamp issued marking a site in the epic Ramayana in the Central highlands: stamp commemorates the Sita Amman Temple, which is believed to be in the site known as Ashok Vatika in the Ramayana where Sita was held captive by King Ravana.
