- Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar expresses hope for a reconciliation process that addresses the aspirations of the minority Tamil community in Sri Lanka for equality, justice and self-respect: highlights the implementation of the 13 Amendment to the Constitution to achieve the objective: reiterates India’s support for the preservation of Sri Lanka’s multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-religious identity.
- Top analysts point out that out of 14 countries that carried out domestic debt restructuring in the last 25 years, Sri Lanka stands alone in targeting pension funds while excluding banks and private creditors: analysts also point out that, based on the CBSL’s own Provident Fund Interest Rate of 29% credited to the CBSL staff in 2022, the EPF Members have suffered a phenomenal loss of 20% of their balances as they are to be credited with only 9% as per the Monetary Board’s recommendation.
- The Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) says the apparel sector is continuing to undergo distress and has now begun to lose its market share to competing nations: apparel exports in July’23 decline 23% YOY to USD 401mn: cumulatively, for the 7 months – January to July 2023, apparel exports down a massive 19% to USD 2.7 bn.
- Netherland’s State Secretary for Culture and Media Gunay Uslu to visit Sri Lanka on August 23 to sign the legal document to return the cultural artifacts that were pillaged from Sri Lanka: the objects to include the famous Lewke’s canon, 2 Gold kastanes (ceremonial swords), Singhalese knives, Silver kastane and 2 guns.
- Western Province Senior Police DIG Deshabandu Tennakoon says Police have launched a special crack-down to completely control organized crimes in the country within the next 6 months.
- Monetary Board imposes caps on lending interest rates on pawning facilities at 18%, on pre-arranged temporary overdrafts at 23%, & on credit cards at 28%: analysts however point out that the Govt is still paying nearly 18% on its own borrowings in Treasury Bills.
- President Ranil Wickremesinghe extends his congratulations to the Indian PM Narendra Modi and the people of India, on the achievement of Chandrayaan-3’s successful soft landing on the lunar South Pole for the 1st time in history.
- Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa says Sri Lanka had spent USD 320 mn for the launch of SupremeSAT in 2012, while India had spent only USD 263 mn for the entire Chandrayaan programme: urges the Govt to submit a report regarding the massive expenditure on SupremeSAT project: Leader of the House Susil Premajayantha says he was the Minister of Science, Technology and Research from 2015 to 2018, and that he was unaware of such a satellite being launched in Sri Lanka.
- Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera says a Forensic audit is to be conducted on the fuel distribution scam that had taken place in 2022, using duplicate invoices.
- Parliament’s Sectoral Oversight Committee on Energy and Transport learns that more than 90% of vehicles running in Sri Lanka are not upto the proper smoke emission standards: also learns that 20% of vehicles fail the smoke emission test annually.
