- President Ranil Wickremesinghe raises serious concerns with Heads of Inland Revenue Dept, Excise & Customs Depts over their failure to gather the required revenue: queries as to why only an estimated 500,000 tax files continue to be on the tax base when the actual number should be far higher.
- SJB MPs Eran Wickremaratne & Harsha Silva say a hopeless & hapless Govt is continuing to heap burdens on its citizens through excessive taxation: oppose the increase of VAT from 15% to 18%: analysts point out that the same MPs previously advocated higher taxes, flexible LKR, higher interest rates, debt restructuring, and an extensive IMF programme.
- SL Customs collects its highest-ever monthly revenue of Rs.109bn in October’23: total revenue in the first 10 months of 2023 reaches Rs.760bn.
- Police arrest Sanjeewa Dhammika, Secretary of the Electricity Consumers’ Association, a Buddhist monk, and 4 others during a protest at Horagasmulla on the Colombo – Divulapitiya main road: these activists were protesting against the increase in electricity tariffs.
- Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrives on a 3-day “official visit”: expected to deliver the keynote address at a conference organized by the SL Govt to mark the 200th anniversary of the arrival of India-origin Tamils (IOTs) to SL: also expected to make the keynote address at the India-SL Business Summit on ‘Enhancing Connectivity – Partnering for Prosperity’, jointly organized by Confederation of Indian Industries, Indo-Lanka Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
- Colombo Magistrate says the Expert Committee that probed Dinesh Schaffter’s post-mortem has concluded that death was due to pressure exerted on the victim’s face & neck: orders the CID to investigate & apprehend the suspects.
- Vietnam overtakes SL in terms of per capita GDP: as of 2022, Vietnam’s per capita GDP has risen to USD 4,164, compared to USD 3,354 of SL: SL’s current per capita GDP is almost the same as that of 10 years ago, when it was USD 3,352: over the 5 years (2017-2022), about one-fourth of SL’s per capita GDP got wiped out: at end 2014, SL’s per capita GDP was USD 3,819 while average GDP growth over the 5 years (2010-2014), was 6.5%.
- Workers’ remittances in September’23 amounts to USD 482mn, compared to USD 359mn in September’22 & USD 499mn in August’23: total departures for foreign employment in September’23 and during January to September’23 was 25,648 & 222,794 respectively: in 2022, the total departures were 311,056.
- World Bank MD – Operations Anna Bjerde encourages the Govt to see”stay the course on reforms for recovery & sustainable growth”: affirms WB’s “continuous commitment to investing in people, strengthening human capital, & creating jobs”: in the past 18 months in SL since following an IMF programme, poverty in SL has more than doubled, an estimated one million jobs lost, and hundreds of thousands of SME businesses have crashed.
- ICC Brand Ambassador and SL spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan says champion sides are not made in one day, & it is a long process: asserts that building players is more important: laments that after 2015, SL hasn’t nurtured players and when someone fails, he is unfortunately dropped from the team: recommends that players must be given more chances and given a backing.
