Starting today (October 7th), the upgraded motor vehicle revenue licence system, eRL2.0, designed to streamline the process of obtaining or renewing revenue licences, will go into effect, according to State Minister of Technology Kanaka Herath.
During a press conference held in Colombo, Herath explained that this program will be implemented across all provinces except for the Western Province.
The new system will enable individuals to conveniently obtain new revenue licences online, from the comfort of their own homes.
Furthermore, the State Minister disclosed that efforts are in progress to digitize the payment systems of all state institutions by March 31, 2024.
Sri Lanka’s renowned household Chicken brand Bairaha recently earned high praise for its creative participation at the Pro-food Pro-pack & Agribiz 2023 trade expo, as well as at the Culinary Art & Food Expo 2023.
Organised by the Sri Lanka Food Processors’ Association (SLFPA), the Pro-food Pro-pack & Agribiz 2023 trade expo was held from August 4 to 6, 2023 at the BMICH, Colombo. For this event, Bairaha teamed up with culinary news publication Rasa Saraniya, to conduct creative ways of preparing delectable chicken dishes with the participation of culinary enthusiasts.
Two selected housewives competed against each other to developing creative dishes using Bairaha products and to present their talent and skill to the audience at the expo. The participants dishes were evaluated by Bairaha Farms’ Culinary Consultant Sunil Edirisinghe, and they were awarded with gifts and prizes.
Moreover, two new products were also launched at the exhibition, namely Chicken Ham and Chicken and Cheese Ham. The newly launched products, as well as other popular products were sold to visitors at the exhibition.
The Culinary Art & Food Expo 2023, organised by the Chef’s Guild of Sri Lanka and the World Association of Chefs Societies, were held from June 9 to 11, 2023, also at the BMICH, Colombo.
At the Expo with the supervision of Bairaha Farms’ Culinary Consultant Sunil Edirisinghe, aspiring chefs competed to develop new chicken recipes, utilising Bairaha products.
The winner in the category of the ‘Most Outstanding Nuwara Eliya Hotel Culinary Team 2023’ was awarded the Bairaha Trophy.
Commenting on the company’s participations, Bairaha Farms’ Culinary Consultant Sunil Edirisinghe emphasised; “these occasions have shown us that, as much as the cooking is important, the resources that you use are equally as important, in order to guarantee exciting and delectable dishes. We saw highly skilled and competitive chefs work their way to create new and unique dishes, and we also saw the conventional mother or housewife attempting at the same task- both were successful, due to their passionate interest in cooking.”
Bairaha Farms PLC’s Brand Manager Ravin Madushanka was elated about the impact and influence Bairaha has had through participation at these expos. “We are grateful to all of our participants and hosts who enabled us to take part successfully in these events, as well as to the Rasa Saraniya publication team,” he added.
Bairaha Farms PLC is a pioneer in poultry production, with a rich history of nearly 50 years in Sri Lanka, and is well known among households for its quality chicken and processed chicken meat products. The company is a fully vertically integrated and has a steady growth trajectory. Bairaha Farms PLC has been the recipient of many local and international accolades.
Caption
Seen here Bairaha Farms PLC’s Brand Manager Ravin Madusanka (centre) observing a participant engaged in making a tasteful dish.
A former commando, suspected to be linked to a recent shooting incident in Thalangama, has been fatally shot in a confrontation with the Police Special Task Force (STF), as reported by the STF.
The incident occurred in Hanwella, and it is believed that the deceased individual was a wanted suspect in connection with a shooting that occurred in Thalangama on August 25th. During the incident in Thalangama, two unidentified men riding a motorcycle had opened fire on a 44-year-old man on Robert Gunawardena Mawatha before quickly fleeing the scene.
Colombo (LNW): Chair of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Energy & Transport, MP Nalaka Bandara Kottegoa, has requested that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) conduct a probe into the frequent delays in flights observed recently.
Kottegoda recommended that the matter be probed in the context of whether there exists an organised scheme, deliberately causing delays in flight in a bid to hamper Sri Lankas rising tourist economy.
Kottegoda discussed the matter at a meeting of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Energy & Transport held in parliament on Wednesday (04 Oct.).
He highlighted that the constant delay in flights is concerning, especially at a time where Sri Lanka is seeing a peak Ii nth number of tourist arrival, despite various challenged including the economic crisis.
Officials representing the CAA present at the meeting explained that such an occurrence may be likely, given the fact that there are many trade unions within the ambit of SriLankan Airlines,
Thus, Kottegoda urged for all relevant parties to work towards resolving the matter, emphasising that they should not leave room for the matter to escalate further.
Meanwhile the Government is to scrap the monopoly given to SriLankan Airlines for flights operating between Colombo and some international destinations.
Minister of Ports and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva disclosed that he had a discussion with international airline operators and requested them to expand operations between Colombo and global destinations.
He said that he offered airlines to operate direct flights to destinations from Colombo earlier granted only to SriLankan Airlines.
The Minister said the offer was made to ensure tourism was not affected by the crisis at SriLankan Airlines.
Sri Lanka’s flag carrier, SriLankan Airlines, is responding to recent allegations of poor working conditions, long flight delays, and cancellations. The Airline Pilot’s Guild of Sri Lanka (ALPGSL) slammed the carrier’s management team on Sunday, calling on them to address the concerns.
The association also highlighted that the pilots it represents have been depleted due to low staffing numbers, but SriLankan indicated that it has enough crew to operate its scheduled flights.
Additionally, the airline noted that less than 60 pilots have resigned compared to Guild’s claim of 70 resignations.
In a statement, SriLankan said it has been operating with a smaller fleet amid the Guild’s concerns.
“SriLankan Airlines has been managing with a reduced fleet of 15 as opposed to the intended 18 aircraft over the last two months, which has unfortunately impacted the airline’s flight schedule and on-time performance. The good news is that this situation is expected to ease off by mid-July 2023.”
While not responding directly to the problems outlined by the ALPGSL, the carrier explained that it forecasted a shortage of aircraft, but “several unforeseen events,” such as annual ‘C’ checks on aircraft and engine supply scarcities, ultimately exacerbated the situation.
The completion of the checks has been prolonged “due to the unavailability of components locally,” while engines for its Airbus A320neo aircraft have been in short supply around the globe, reportedly grounding over 300 aircraft.
Colombo (LNW): In a bid to strengthen consumer rights and streamline the grievance reprisal process, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a comprehensive program presented by the Trade, Commerce and Food Security Minister Nalin Fernando.
At the heart of this endeavour is the establishment of a National Operations Centre, a dedicated hub tasked with coordinating and executing special raids through a collaborative effort.
The initiative aims to significantly reduce the time and effort invested in investigating customer complaints and making decisions on them.
Its key components include educational initiatives targeting both consumers and producers, with a focus on instilling awareness about consumer rights and promoting fair trade practices.
“This will be a pivotal shift towards decentralised investigation processes, bringing the resolution of complaints to the district level for increased efficiency.
The joint program is poised to revolutionise the enforcement of consumer protection measures,” Cabinet Co-Spokesman and Minister Bandula Gunawardena said at the post-Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Legal provisions have been reinforced within the framework of the Consumer Affairs Authority Act No. 9 of 2003, empowering the Consumer Affairs Authority to intervene and address consumer complaints.
Concurrently, the Department of Measurement, Standards, and Services, instituted by the Measurement Units, Standards, and Services Act No. 35 of 1995, will join forces with the Consumer Affairs Authority to conduct market raids aimed at safeguarding consumer rights.
“With a concerted effort to educate and empower both consumers and producers, the initiative embodies a forward-looking approach to fair and transparent trade practices, ultimately fostering a more equitable marketplace for all stakeholders involved,” he added
Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) raised questions regarding the responsibility of the Consumer Affairs Authority.
The committee was of the opinion that although the main responsibility of the Authority is to protect consumer rights through empowering consumers, streamlining trade and good promotions, the Authority is not working according to that vision.
Accordingly, the Committee recommended the Secretary to the Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Food Security to report to COPE on how the Consumer Affairs Authority can deal with the protection of consumer rights.
The Authority was also told to prepare a program that goes beyond traditional price control to control commodity prices.
The committee’s attention was particularly focused on the current egg price control. Thus, instructions were given for the two Secretaries to the Ministries of Trade and Agriculture to coordinate with the relevant officials to prepare a price formula to determine the price of an egg.
The consumer affairs authority was also instructed to act promptly to appoint a permanent Director General. It was disclosed that there has only been an Acting Director General appointed for many years now.
Colombo (LNW): EU Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Denis Chaibi, stated that massive investments or public expenditure for the infrastructure for recharging sites are needed for the formation of electrical vehicles in the island nation.
He was addressing the Ceylon Motor Traders Association (CMTA), Stakeholder Breakfast Forum at the Hilton Colombo Residencies in Colombo recently.
HR addressed the forum on topics such as the role of the automobile industry in Europe, the relationship between governments and the automobile industry, the infrastructure required for electric vehicles and more.
Mr. Chaibi said, “The biggest challenge for EVs is the massive investment required for the grid to be able to receive and redistribute renewable energy and to be able to support charging stations.
“The best recharging stations take about 20 minutes to charge a vehicle to 80%, so even if you have a large recharging station with say 20 charging points, it will take 20 cars, for 20 minutes.
In terms of electric cars in Sri Lanka, we must look at regulation, enforcement, profit for both manufacturer and the state, and infrastructure,” he claimed.
Finding more sources of renewable energy should be feasible, as Sri Lanka is blessed with mountains, rains, wind, sun, and tides, and with an investment of 15 to 20 billion dollars could be carbon neutral in a few years, he added.
Charaka Perera, Chairman of the Ceylon Motor Traders Association addressed the gathering and highlighted a host of topics such as the hardships faced by the motor industry, the structured proposal by CMTA to lift the suspension on vehicle imports, Electric Vehicles (EV), and more.
During his address, Mr. Perera said, “While some of the countries who have also agreed to COP26 targets have far better EV infra-structure than Sri Lanka, none of them have set their targets for 100% passenger EVs for the immediate term.
He said “his indicates that all of them understand the impracticality of achieving 100% passenger EVs even within a span of five years”.
In a startling revelation, Sri Lanka’s motor traders have raised serious concerns on the government’s decision to impose a zero customs tariff on the CIF value to import electric vehicles with power up to 500 kW or Plug In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PEHV) up to 3000CC in semi-knockdown (SKD) form for local assembly.
This was proposed in a cabinet memorandum submitted by the Ministry of Investment promotion and in addition to it, a proposal has been made to grant this facility for a minimum investment of US$50 million by companies with the approval of Board of Investment (BOI) or new companies entering into such agreements.
This move has been made by the government authorities with ulterior motives for the benefit of a leading company in vehicle import and assembly business in Sri Lanka, frontline members of the Vehicle Importers Association of Sri Lanka (VIASL) alleged.
Colombo (LNW): “Perceptions about Sri Lanka’s economic climate continue to be under a cloud although there was some improvement in several economic indicators” LMD recent survey revealed.
“Despite the fact that many of Sri Lanka’s key economic indicators continue to improve – albeit gradually – perceptions in the nation’s corridors of business remain muted at best.”
The LMD magazine reports that “the percentage of business executives that believe the national economy will improve in the next 12 months increased by 4% to 17% in September.
Six months ago however, slightly over a third (34%) expressed confidence about the economic outlook.”
Less than a quarter (21%) expect the economy to remain the same (from 25% in August) while a pool of 62% polled that it would get worse – similar to the figure recorded in the preceding month, it notes.
A spokesperson for LMD also states: “One in three of those polled expects sales volumes in the next 12 months to get better, as was the case in August. But over a quarter feel that the numbers will remain the same, which is higher than the 22% recorded in August.”
According World Bank’s development update, Sri Lanka economy contracted by 7.8 percent in 2022 and 7.9 percent in the first half of 2023.
Construction, manufacturing, real estate, and financial services suffered the most amid shrinking private credit, shortages of inputs, and supply chain disruptions, worsening the negative welfare impacts of income contractions and job losses registered in 2022.
Headline inflation, measured by the Colombo Consumer Price Index, peaked at 69.8 percent in September 2022 and subsequently declined sharply to 4 percent in August 2023 and further decelerated significantly below the target to 1.3 per cent in September 2023, Central Bank data shows.
The decelerated inflation has been driven by declines in both food and non-food inflation from a high base amid subdued demand.
Decelerating inflation was beneficial for benefiting households’ welfare, and helping to limit further increases in food insecurity and malnutrition, especially among poor households.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has further reduced policy interest rates by 100 basis points, at the first monetary policy review by the Monetary Policy Board under the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act, No. 16 of 2023 (CBA) ON Thursday 05 2023.
The deficit in the merchandise trade account widened in August to US $307 million compared to $ 260 million recorded in August 2022.
However, the cumulative deficit in the trade account during January to August 2023 narrowed to $2,964 million from $3,889 million recorded over the same period in 2022 due to a larger decline in imports off setting the decline in exports.
Sri Lanka’s official foreign reserves were estimated to have fallen to 3.5 billion US dollars in September, from 3.6 billion US dollars in August, the Central Bank said.
There were one-off factors including the bank covering short positions on Sri Lanka Development Bonds after they were repaid in rupees as well as a repayment of a swap with Bangladesh.
Sri Lanka has reported a marginal decrease in workers’ remittances in September 2023 compared to the previous month of August 2023. Official figures indicate that remittances received in September amounted to USD 482.4 million, whereas in August 2023, the inflows reached USD 499.2 million.
Despite this month-to-month decline, the cumulative figure for the period of January to September 2023 shows a positive trend, with total remittances amounting to USD 4,345.1 million. This marks a substantial increase of 68.8% when compared to the corresponding period in 2022, reflecting sustained growth in remittance inflows during the year.
Sri Lankan astrologer Indika Thotawaththa has been apprehended by the Police Computer Crimes Division on allegations of making defamatory statements that are detrimental to religious co-existence. The arrest was carried out on October 6th.
Thotawaththa is accused of posting defamatory remarks concerning a specific religion on social media platforms. He is scheduled to appear before the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court today to face charges related to these allegations.
Parliamentary proceedings suspended for 10 minutes due to MPs’ protests that the Finance Ministry is delaying to respond to a question asked by SLPP MP Gevindu Kumaratunga as to the rate of the interest paid by the Monetary Board on the EPF Members’ balances and the CBSL Provident Fund Members’ balances for the year 2022: previously, MP Kumaratunga had stated that the CBSL Provident Fund had paid a staggering 29% while the EPF paid only 9%.
SLPP MP Chandima Weerakkody raises a Privilege issue in Parliament that he had been threatened by the Defence Secretary and Army Commander on 5th October inside the Parliamentary premises after he raised matters about the abuse of vehicles by high ranking Army officers: also says the Defence Secretary had responded affirmatively when asked whether he was threatening the MP.
A massive tree falls on a Deniyaya-bound bus at Duplication Road, Kollupitiya, killing 5 persons
Supreme Court determines that the decision taken by the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress to remove Minister Naseer Ahamed from the SLMC, is valid.
Police arrest Astrologer Indika Thotawaththa for making defamatory remarks on a particular religion: Maligakanda Magistrate remands Thotawatta until October 20.
Disaster Management Centre issues Landslide Warning Level 3-Evacuation (Red) for the following areas: Elpitiya & Nagoda in the Galle District, Ingiriya, Walallawita & Mathugama in the Kalutara District, Pitabeddara in the Matara District, and Kuruwita in the Ratnapura District.
Colombo Stock Market plunges 3% in the week, amidst lacklustre investor interest fuelled by concerns over the macro situation: ASPI loses 348 points (-3.07%): market turnover drops and averages a dismal Rs.740mn per day, from Rs.962mn, the previous week.
Cumulative trade deficit for the first 8 months of 2023 upto August’23 narrows to USD 2,964 mn from USD 3,889 mn in 2022, mainly due to a large decline in imports.
Prasad Samarawickrema, the Project Director of “Digiecon-23” says SL’s Information and Communication Technology sector is facing a dearth of skilled workforce with most having already left the country: also says the ICT workforce should be at least 175,000 this year and 300,000 by 2025, but only 75,000 are available at the moment.
Sri Lanka Cricket Team’s Head Coach Chris Silverwood says SL will be without Maheesh Theekshana for the World Cup opener against South Africa, as he has not yet fully recovered from the hamstring tear he suffered in the Asia Cup.
