Despite the strike being called by many trade unions, 13 office trains will run today (15) morning, says the Presidential Media Division.

A statement issued by them states that the police will also provide the necessary security for that.

Today (15) the massive strike by 40 trade unions including health, port, petroleum and electricity will be held against the tax levied on wages.

The Federation of Professional Unions has said that all services across the island will be paralyzed due to this strike.

Postal unions say they will join the strike even though it was gazetted last night as an essential service.

Many railway unions had announced that they would start the strike from midnight yesterday.

Also, the trade unions have announced that school teachers and principals will also go on strike today.

The unions say that the staff of all divisional secretariats and district secretariats also support the strike and the unions of Ceylon Electricity Board will take sick leave today and join the action.

Many health trade unions, including the Government Medical Officers Association, are on strike across the island today, and the port trade unions have also said that they will completely stop work at the port today.

Meanwhile, several trade unions in these fields have announced that they will not join the strike.

Colombo (LNW): A committee will be formed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to identify suitable government hospitals as teaching hospitals to provide clinical training for Medical Students enrolled at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU), Dr. Neville Fernando Hospital, Lyceum Campus and other universities in Colombo, Kalutara, Gampaha, Kurunegala and Polonnaruwa, without hampering the training of students in State Universities.

Accordingly, State Minister of Health Dr. Seetha Arambepola will be appointed as the Chairperson of the aforementioned Committee, while other appointed members will include Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Health Dr. R.M. Saman Kusumsiri Ratnayake, Additional Secretary (Medical Services) of the Ministry of Health Dr. A.K.S. de Alwis, Chairman – University Grant Commission Senior Prof. Sampath Amarathunga, Senior Consultant Surgeon Prof. Mohan de Silva, Professor in Surgery, Faculty of Medicine USJP Prof. Bawantha Gamage, Senior Consultant Orthopaedics & Trauma Surgeon Dr. Narendra Pinto, Dean -, Faculty of Medicine – KDU Prof. Namal Wijesinghe, President of SLMC Prof. Vajira Dissanayake, President of GMOA Dr. Darshana Sirisena, Executive Director -, University Hospital KDU Prof. J. Balawardane and Director Nursing (Medical Service) – Ministry of Health Mrs. R.L.S. Samanmali.

The Committee will be responsible for studying, reviewing and identifying suitable government hospitals to function as Teaching Hospitals to provide clinical training for Medical Students enrolled at the KDU, Dr. Neville Fernando Hospital, Lyceum Campus and other universities in Colombo, Kalutara, Gampaha, Kurunegala and Polonnaruwa. The Committee is also expected to make recommendations for the necessary developments to upgrade the hospitals identified for the provision of such training and submit a report on the findings and recommendations of the Committee within a period of eight (08) weeks.

By: Isuru Parakrama

Colombo (LNW): Credit card issues have lifted the threshold limits on overseas spending in response to the recent foreign currency liquidity improvement, making it possible for those travelling overseas to spend more.

The credit card threshold was limited amidst the worsening economic crisis last year, and banks had imposed daily limits on overseas card usage to prevent foreign currency from being flown out.

However, the recent liquidity conditions on forex in the local banking sector have led to the lifting of these limits, making it possible for travellers to spend more.

By: Staff writer

Colombo (LNW): India and Sri Lanka has agreed to expedite the completion of the  housing project for the benefit of workers living in plantation areas.   

High Commissioner of India Gopal Baglay and Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development Jeevan Thondaman exchanged diplomatic notes, paving way for a three-fold increase in unit cost of a house under Phase-3 of Indian Housing Project (IHP).

This step would now enable expeditious completion of Phase-3 of IHP, under which 4000 houses are being constructed through grant assistance by Government of India (GOI) in plantation areas of Sri Lanka, spread across 7 Districts in Central, Uva and Southern Provinces.

Close to 46,000 houses were built in different parts of Sri Lanka under the first two phases of IHP. Next phase for the construction of 10,000 houses in plantation areas, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, shall commence soon.

 Exchange of diplomatic notes takes place at an important juncture, when the Indian-Origin Tamil (IOT) community who are concentrated in the plantation areas marks 200 years of their arrival to Sri Lanka.

This also coincides with 100 years of establishment of Assistant High Commission of India in Kandy, which has been instrumental in implementing several people-centric grant schemes by GOI for the IOT community cutting across areas such as education, health, vocational training, livelihood development and several others, in addition to housing.

These milestones shall be commemorated by the Governments of India and Sri Lanka through several joint initiatives along with the establishment of 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two neighbours.

By: Isuru Parakrama

Colombo (LNW): The National People’s Power (NPP) has lodged a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition before the Supreme Court seeking a ruling that the non-holding of the Local Government Election on March 09, 2023 has violated fundamental rights.

The petition lodged by NPP MP (Dr.) Harini Amarasuriya, former MP Sunil Handunnetti and NPP Secretary Nihal Abeysinghe cites the Finance Secretary, the Attorney General, the Government Printer, the Inspector General of Police, the Election Commission Chairman and its members, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, and the members of the Board of Ministers as respondents.

By: Isuru Parakrama

Colombo (LNW): The proposal forwarded by Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapaksa to present the draft Anti-Corruption Bill to Parliament for approval after publishing on the government’s gazette was approved by the Cabinet yesterday (13).

The Cabinet had approved the formulation of such a bill on July 18, 2022.

Accordingly, the bill drafted by the government drafter has been cleared by the Attorney General as well.

By: Staff writer

Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka is set to maintain US $1 billion monthly foreign inflow from worker remittance by end-2023 with more people leaving the country for foreign employment after current man made economic crisis, Foreign Employment and Labour Minister Manusha Nanayakkara disclosed.

Worker’s remittances have fallen 40.2 percent to $2.9 billion in the first 10 months of last  year mainly as most Sri Lankan expatriate workers sought informal methods like Undiyal or Hawala to send the money due to higher exchange rate than that offered by the formal banking system in Sri Lanka.

Minister Nanayakkara has launched several incentives to encourage Sri Lankan workers in foreign countries to send their money through the formal system and the island nation has witnessed a reversal in year-on-year fall in monthly remittances for the first time in September 2022.

Sri Lanka has recorded high foreign remittances of $7.4 billion in 2020 and analysts believe the minister’s $1 billion monthly target is “highly ambitious” unless the central bank floats the currency and reduces the gap between the formal and informal market exchange rates.

The government has taken some steps including high duty-free allowance, pension benefits, and vehicle imports to boost foreign remittances.

It has also focused on sending skilled labourers for foreign employment, instead of unskilled, the Minister said.

A record 273,988 Sri Lankans have left the country for foreign jobs as of November 14 this year, compared to 203,087 outward labour migration in 2019

Sri Lankan migrant workers’ foreign remittances amounted to a total of USD 844.9 million in the first two months of 2023, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) announced.

According to a latest report published by the central bank, this is an increase of 82% in comparison to the total sum of USD 464.1 million foreign remittances recorded in both January and February last year.

The central bank’s figures have shown that the foreign remittances earned by Sri Lankan migrant workers’ were at USD 437.5 million and USD 407.4 million in January and February 2023, respectively.

Meanwhile, foreign remittances received in December 2022 alone amounted to USD 475.6 million, recording the highest figure reported in a single month since June 2021

Workers’ remittances in February had doubled to $ 407.4 million from a year ago but have suffered a second consecutive Month-on-Month dip.

After peaking to $ 476 million in December last year, workers’ remittances have declined to $ 438 million in January this year and $ 407 million in February. In February last year, workers’ remittances amounted to $ 205 million.

In the first two months of this year, workers’ remittances amounted to $ 845 million, up 82% from $ 464 million in the corresponding period of 2022.

Workers’ remittances in 2022 declined by 31% to $ 3.8 billion from 2021, though a notable recovery was witnessed during the latter part of 2022.

Total departures for foreign employment in 2022 were recorded at 300,000 contributed mainly by the unskilled (101,786), skilled (88,215) and domestic aid (73,781) categories.

In January this year, total departures were 24,236 comprising unskilled (7,556), skilled (7,283) and domestic aid (6,120) categories.

Colombo (LNW): The Adani group, which has been given permission to put up 340 MW of onshore wind power projects in Sri Lanka, has asked the Sri Lankan government for enhancement of the approved capacity to 500 MW.

The proposal is under consideration, D V Chanaka, Sri Lanka’s State Minister for Power and Energy, confirmed.

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka has issued a letter of approval to India’s Adani Green Energy Limited, for the two wind power plants to be set up in Mannar and Pooneryn at a total investment of USD 442 Million.

The wind power plant in Mannar will operate at a capacity of 250 MW while the wind power plant in Pooneryn will operate at a capacity of 100 MW.

The two wind power plants of 350 MW are scheduled to be commissioned in two years and accordingly, they will be added to the national grid by 2025.Also, the new project will generate 1500-2000 new employment opportunities.

It is also reported in Indian media including the Hindu Businessline  that the Adani group would bring into the island country its own 5.2 MW turbines, a prototype of which has been working for a year at Mundra, Gujarat.

The Adani group has developed the machine with technology from W2E (Wind to Energy) GmbH of Germany. The blades describe a circle of 165 meters diameter and the nacelle can sit on towers as tall as 140 meters. It can work at wind speeds of 3 meters per minute (very low) to 20 mps, reaching its optimum power production at 12 mps wind speeds.

Sri Lanka has huge wind power potential, with wind speeds of 75 mps at its good sites. According to an estimate of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the USA made many years ago, Sri Lanka has offshore wind potential to put up 45 GW.

 If an estimate is made now, on the basis of more modern machines, the number would be much higher, say industry experts, who also pointed out that the country has immense offshore wind potential, too. Sri Lanka itself would need very little of it—perhaps 10 GW in 2030, the experts said.

Sri Lanka can make money by selling the surplus to India — just as Bhutan does with hydro power.

Chanaka said an agreement for building a power transmission line project, which could possibly run from Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka to Madurai.The Indian wind industry is eying putting up projects in Sri Lanka.

By: Staff writer

Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council warns that there to be dire repercussions to be faced, due to continued mockery connected to shipping regulations changes.

The Importers and Exporters are perturbed by the action of the Minister of Ports and Shipping, to rescind the Gazette No. 2041/10 dated 17th October, 2017, which was initially introduced on 27th October, 2013, and has benefited the Importers and exporters immensely over the years.

This piece of legislature has helped importers and exporters from anti-competitive practices which have been carried out by service providers for several years.

The rescinding of the Gazette has created a ripple effect, which will lead to Sri Lanka’s Imports and Exports becoming more expensive due to unethical surcharging, thereby becoming uncompetitive and in turn leading to the loss of its market share in the Global Market.

During the pandemic, the exporters performed exceptionally well with month-on-month increased earnings and helped the government to sustain the economy whilst other industries faced challenges and changing trading practices.

With the rescinding of Gazette No. 2041/10, therein lies the question of whether foreign exchange will flow out of the country illegally due to the possible introduction of zero freight again and surcharges levied on non-contractual parties, simply because, there is no coverage of same, through the law of the land.

By rescinding this Gazette, the Minister of Ports and Shipping has removed the protection of free market competition, while, also eliminating the international good practices where price-fixing is not permitted.

 The recent frequent changes made to shipping regulations in Sri Lanka through a few gazettes have also raised ambiguity and concern among foreign trading partners who are sensitive to policy inconsistencies. With exports being promoted as a solution to the current economic crisis, this is detrimental to attract potential buyers and to maintain current clients.

Gazette No. 2041/10 re-confirmed four cardinal principles to protect both importers and exporters from service providers who may charge exorbitant fees, in addition to freight for the carriage of goods.

Sri Lankan exporters have had a competitive advantage in shipping costs compared to other countries due to this legislation, and removing the same, open them to unwarranted additional costs which will make them more expensive to their peers.

Imports to Sri Lanka will become more expensive after the removal of the legislation, due to the addition of unethical surcharges as in the past (44-line items were charged) and the breaking of freight cost into many parts, which ultimately ends up being charged from non-contracting parties. The result is the rise in inflation and cost of living in the country.