By: Staff Writer

Colombo (LNW): The country’s manufacturing and services sector activities decreased in April as per the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of the central bank.

Following the seasonal pattern, Manufacturing PMI decreased to 34.7 in April 2023, indicating a month-on-month contraction in manufacturing activities. In March Manufacturing PMI turned positive in March 2023, after nine consecutive survey rounds, recording an index value of 51.4.

PMI compiler Central Bank of Sri Lanka said Production, New Orders, Employment and Stock of Purchases sub-indices declined during April compared to the seasonal peak in March.

As per the respondents, the decline in Production was primarily due to the temporary closure of most of the factories in April owing to the Sinhala and Tamil New Year holidays.

Decline in New Orders, particularly in the manufacture of food and beverages, was mainly due to the end of the festival season demand.

In addition, some respondents in the manufacture of textiles and apparel sectors mentioned that they observed a continuation of the subdued global demand conditions, resulting in a decline in New Orders.

Further, Employment and Stock of Purchases also declined in line with the declines in New Orders and Production. Meanwhile, Suppliers’ Delivery Time slightly lengthened in April 2023, compared to the previous month on a month-on-month basis.

CBSL said expectations for manufacturing activities for the next three months indicated an improvement, anticipating a favourable development in the economic environment.

The Services sector PMI remained slightly below the neutral threshold recording an index value of 49.6 in April 2023, led by the decreases observed in New Businesses, Employment and Backlogs of Works.

In March Services sector PMI returned to growth territory, recording an index value of 55.1 in March 2023 indicating an expansion across the services sector.

CBSL said Business Activities and Expectations for Activity continued to increase during April. New Businesses declined in April 2023 compared to March 2023, particularly with the decreases observed in insurance, transportation and postal and courier activities sub-sectors.

Business Activities in the services sector continued to grow, yet at a slower rate, in April. Accordingly, business activities in other personal activities sub-sector exhibited a considerable improvement amid the festive season.

Further, education and telecommunication sub-sectors also recorded slight increases during the month. Meanwhile, business activities related to the wholesale and retail trade sub-sector remained stagnant despite festive demand and seasonal discounts.

Employment continued to decline in April at a higher pace due to resignations, migrations and retirements despite few new recruitments taking place during the month. Meanwhile, Backlogs of Work also decreased at a higher rate during the month.

Expectations for Business Activities for the next three months remained improved in April driven by positive sentiments regarding improvements in macro-economic conditions.

By: Isuru Parakrama

Colombo (LNW): The representatives of the Federation of University Teachers’ Association (FUTA) are set to meet with President Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Presidential Secretariat today (18).

The long-awaited meeting comes in after a series of headlines made by the FUTA demanding solutions to a number of issues affecting the higher education sector.

FUTA Chief Prof. Shyama Banneheka said the meeting is set to commence at 3 pm today.

Based on the new income tax scheme proposed by the government, the Federation of Professionals’ Union together with the FUTA launched a trade union action, which affected the paper marking process of the GCE Advanced Level Examination.

The repeated requests to seek an audience with the President in order for university teachers to attend the supervision of the answer scripts of the AL Examination went unanswered, but the FUTA had announced that they will rejoin the paper marking process anyway for the sake of the children.

The evaluation of the AL answer scripts, accordingly, are currently underway, but the university teachers are expecting guaranteed solutions from the President at today’s meeting.

Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka has already reached the threshold of dengue epidemic despite the authorities’ warning on the probable strike of an epidemic by June this year, disclosed Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama, Senior Consultant Physician at the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) in Colombo, speaking to Daily Mirror.

A report by Daily Mirror quoted Dr. Wijewickrama saying, “Normally, the number of patients tend to increase in June and July. Sri Lanka has already recorded over 34,000 cases. In that context, the worst is yet to come.”

In the backdrop, it is essential that the public is taking strict measures to prevent mosquito bites and the spread of the infection, he added.

Records by the Epidemiology Unit reveal that the total number of dengue cases report in Sri Lanka this year is 34,527 and about fifty per cent of the cases are from the Western Province.

Gampaha district stands at the highest record of cases, 7799, whilst Colombo and Kalutara report 7725 and 2033 cases respectively.

By: Isuru Parakrama

Colombo (LNW): If all activities go as planned, Sri Lanka’s first ever nuclear power plant can be built by 2032 with the technical support from Russia, a statement by the Parliament of Sri Lanka said, quoting the Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board.

The above revelation was made during the recent meeting of the Parliament Sectoral Oversight Committee on Energy and Transport called in by Committee Chief MP Nalaka Bandara Kottegoda.

Full statement:

The Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board stated in the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Energy and Transport that if all activities go as planned, the first nuclear power plant can be built in Sri Lanka by 2032 with Russian technical support.

This fact came to light when the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Energy and Transport met in Parliament recently (May 09) to discuss the current status and future activities of the Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board. The committee was chaired by the Member of Parliament Hon. Nalaka Bandara Kottegoda.

There was a discussion in length in the committee regarding the production of skilled professionals in the field of welding and related technology in Sri Lanka. The members of the committee pointed out that there is a great demand for experts in this field in industrialised countries including Korea and the need for a formal mechanism to produce skilled workers with formal certificates in the said field.

Officials mentioned that the training and certification system for those who already have professional experience in this sector and those who are new entrants in the field is conducted at the training centre run by the board. However, since there is no proper awareness among the people about this training, the committee advised to prepare a plan and take steps to make awareness and involve more young people.

It was also discussed that Saudi Arabia hopes to get preserved coconut coir from Sri Lanka for the project of planting 10 billion trees in Saudi Arabia. Chairman of the Committee MP Hon. Nalaka Bandara Kottegoda mentioned that the country can get a large amount of foreign exchange by providing facilities for the said process of sterilisation. Accordingly, the Committee advised the Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board to take steps to prepare the sterilisation facility.

The members of Parliament, Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara, Hon. Nalin Bandara Jayamaha, Hon. Yadamini Gunawardena, Hon. Isuru Dodangoda, Hon. Udayakanta Gunathilake, Hon. M. Udayakumar, Hon. Kumarasiri Ratnayake and Hon. Akila Ellawala participated in the meeting.

By: Staff Writer

Colombo (LNW): A case has been filed in Singapore over the X-Press Pearl incident, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said.

The Attorney General (AG) filed the claim in the High Court of Singapore over the X-Press Pearl incident involving six defendants.

A case conference hearing took place on 15th May and the next hearing is scheduled for June, PMD said.

The AG’s department is considering transferring the case to the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) based on SICC’s rules and litigation is being managed by a Singaporean law firm approved by the Cabinet to represent the Sri Lankan Government.

X-Press Pearl was a Singapore-registered container ship which caught fire off the coast of Colombo, in May 2021.

The vessel was engulfed in flames by 27 May 2021 and declared a total loss. It was still afloat, and the fire was thought to be under control by Sri Lankan firefighters by the late hours of 27 May 2021.

Following a lapse of four years, the Sri Lankan government filed the compensation claim for the X-press Pearl inferno at a Singapore Court on May 9and the proceedings commenced on May 15 The estimate has been calculated at USD 6.2 billion, but this amount has not yet been finalized.

However, several maritime legal experts raised concerns when the government planned to file the case in an international court as they believed that it would be an advantage to the company that owns the ship.

But international arbitration experts claim Sri Lanka has an advantage in filing the case in an international court.

Explaining the litigation process in an international court, Manthi Wickramasooriya, of Counsel at Quinn Emanuel Office, London and an international arbitration and commercial litigation specialist said that as he understands from the limited information available publicly, the claim that has been filed by the Government of Sri Lanka is a claim before the courts of Singapore.

“This would ordinarily mean the Singapore High Court (and could perhaps even be a claim before the Singapore International Commercial Court).”

“The litigation process in Singapore is well-established and is, in broad terms, no different to other international fora, such as the courts of England and Wales.

Ordinarily, once a party files its claim, there is a pleadings phase where both parties exchange their legal cases, followed by the production of relevant documents (typically known as ‘disclosure’ or ‘discovery’ in the US), the exchange of evidence of fact witnesses and the exchange of expert evidence (e.g. expert evidence in demonstrating the losses caused, and also quantifying the amount of the alleged loss).

This is followed by a public trial during which fact witnesses and experts will be cross-examined and submissions are made by the legal teams. In a case of this magnitude, a trial may well last a month or longer. Once the trial has been concluded, the court will issue its judgement, he explained.

By: Staff Writer

Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka’s Inland Revenue Department one of the three state revenue collection agencies is till to recover the total arrears of taxes, penalties and interest due to the state tax office by December 31, 2022 as a result of using faulty RAMIS and Legacy systems is Rs. 904 billion, the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) revealed .

The corrupted official front liners who were behind the introduction of the RAMIS system and played out tax payers money safeguarding billionaire businessmen are still spearheading treasury operations aiding and abetting corrupt practices , several IRD officials said.

It was disclosed that an amount of Rs. 163 billion has been identified as income that can be collected without any legal concern and that Rs. 740 billion has been identified as income that has been temporarily suspended due to certain reasons.

The Auditor General also pointed out that this amount has been identified as the total arrears of tax to be collected under both RAMIS and Legacy systems and there was a discussion at length about not collecting the revenue due that could be collected off this tax arrears.

COPA Chairman State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna, recommended that a report be given to COPA with dates containing information on how to collect the tax arrears identified as chargeable income which can be collected at least in installments.

The Chairman also recommended that a separate report should be given on the total outstanding tax amount of 904 billion rupees and the report should state in detail how taxes have been evaded and the reasons for such.

The Commission on Public Accounts (COPA) recently made several proposals regarding the Inland Revenue Department’s tax collection system.

According to COPA, the department’s Revenue Administration Management Information System, or RAMIS for short, currently doesn’t function properly. The proposals suggest that RAMIS would need to be updated properly in order to improve the IRD’s efficiency.

Back in 2014, the IRD under the Ministry of Finance, invested Rs 10 billion towards building RAMIS.

The idea was to modernize and improve the tax collection process. However, it’s now revealed that the system doesn’t operate as intended, despite the fact that “more money has already been spent to strengthen this system,” according to COPA Chairman.

The IRD officials’ claim that RAMIS would need to be updated following the 2017 Inland Revenue Act as RAMIS was implemented in 2014.

However, back in 2018, the IRD stated the system was being updated to include the 2017 act. The officials further mentioned that they are unable to provide contractual information as per the terms and conditions of the agreement with the company that built RAMIS, a Singaporean firm.

Further, since the agreement is technically between the two governments, “intervention of the

Prior to RAMIS, Sri Lanka’s taxation system was only partially automated and it was one riddled with issues, according to the then Senior Commissioner of Inland Revenue.

RAMIS was built as part of an agreement between Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance and NCS, a subsidiary of Singapore’s Singtel.

A customized version of Singapore’s own IRAS application, the arrangement also included “change management and transformation” training sessions for IRD staff as part of the implementation process.

By: Isuru Parakrama

Colombo (LNW): With 16 Covid related fatalities and 170 new infections reported over the last 20 days, the total number of Covid cases confirmed stands at 672,317 and the death toll at 16,856, revealed the Epidemiology Unit.

According to health authorities, a majority of the recently deceased were above the age 70, among whom some were vaccinated and some were not. All 16 victims had been suffering from chronic diseases, they added.

The highest number of deaths, 03, within the last 20-day period was recorded on May 07, and the highest number of single-day cases, 13, were reported on May 06 and 16, according to official reports.