- Chamber of Construction Industry Secretary General Nissanka N Wijeratne warns of collapse of the Construction industry due to the increase of VAT from 15% to 18% from 1st Jan’24: says the contraction of the sector from Jun’20 up to now is about 50%.
- Jaffna District MP C V Wigneswaran says he is willing to contest the Presidential election next year, if all Tamil political parties reach a consensus on his candidature.
- President Ranil Wickremesinghe appoints Justice W M N P Iddawala as the Chairman of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption: also appoints Chethiya Goonesekera & K. Bernard Rajapakse as the other members with effect from 1st Jan’24.
- Police say its Illegal Assets and Property Investigation Division has seized a house in Ja-Ela, land and a vehicle worth over Rs.55 million belonging to underworld member “Mattakuliye Kudu Roshan”.
- Finance Ministry says the 7.5% Ports and Airports Development Levy will be removed for fuel when the 18% VAT comes into effect: also says PAL will be removed from domestic LP Gas.
- Export Development Board says Merchandise Exports increased by 4.4% to USD 968.8 million in Nov’23 compared to Oct’23, but 2.67% lower from a year ago.
- Electricity Consumers’ Assn says the Public Utilities Commission should find out the cause of the power outage that occurred across the island on 9th Dec’23 and take appropriate action without waiting for the CEB to find out and inform them: refutes statement made by PUC Chairman Professor M A R M Fernando that the CEB had accepted responsibility for the power outage.
- Central Bank data reveals that the Western, North Western and Central Provinces continue to lead in empowering the country’s GDP: Western Province increases its share in nominal GDP to 43.4%.
- Department of Census and Statistics survey shows that the economic crisis is bearing on people: also shows 60.5% of households find their monthly average incomes reduced, while 91.0% of households experience an increase in their monthly expenditure levels: traces back origin of the crisis to the 2019 Easter Sunday attack which had been exacerbated by the Pandemic.
- Senior Lecturer and Spokesperson of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations Senior Lecturer Charudaththe Illangasinghe says over 800 university lecturers have left SL this year: also says nearly 1,000 more are overseas “on leave”: adds that as a result academic activities at universities have been severely affected: laments the recruitment of new lecturers has come to a stop at present.
