PMD: The Minister of State for Home Affairs, Ashoka Priyantha said swift action will be taken to fill nearly 4000 vacant Grama Niladhari positions.

Additionally, he noted the formation of a committee led by Mr. Anura Dissanayake, the Prime Minister’s Secretary, to address this issue.

Furthermore, Mr. Ashoka Priyantha shared that the e-GN program, aimed at digitizing all 14,022 Grama Seva domains across the country, is already in progress. These statements were made during a press conference at the Presidential Media Centre today, under the theme ‘Collective Path to a stable country.’

Minister of State for Home Affairs, Ashoka Priyantha further said;

Balancing the public service is essential, taking into account various factors, including the country’s economic situation. This should be carried out without regard to one’s position, but it’s crucial to recognize that there are job openings in specific districts, regions and organizations.

Presently, the government has adopted a policy of suspending recruitment. However, there is a considerable number of vacancies for Grama Niladhari officers. The absence of Grama Niladhari Officers, who operate at the village level, poses challenges in moving forward. Therefore, our current efforts are focused on filling the four thousand vacant Grama Niladhari positions. This matter has been referred to the committee headed by Mr. Anura Dissanayake, the Prime Minister’s Secretary, for resolution.

When President Ranil Wickremesinghe assumed loffice, our primary task was to create an environment conducive to the well-being of the people. Thanks to the President’s visionary decisions after taking office, we have been able to achieve significant economic improvements for the country’s citizens within just one year.

In particular, we have established food security and nutrition committees. After the central operating committee of the Presidential Secretariat was formed, food security and nutrition committees were established at the provincial and district levels, as well as at the divisional secretariat level, covering all 14,022 Grama Seva domains.

Furthermore, the e-GN Grama Seva domain system has been implemented across the entire island. Ninety percent of these systems are operational in the Kalutara district, with fifty percent in Puttalam. This program has also been introduced in seven districts and data collection is underway in others. Consequently, we aim to digitize all 14,022 Grama Seva Domains in the near future.

By: Isuru Parakrama

Colombo (LNW): Showers or thundershowers will occur at times in Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces and in Kandy, Nuwara-Eliya, Galle and Matara districts, and fairly heavy showers above 50mm are likely at some places in Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Puttalam, Galle and Matara districts, the Department of Meteorology said in its daily weather forecast today (08).

Several spells of showers may occur in Anuradhapura and Hambantota districts, and Showers or thundershowers will occur at a few places in Uva province and in Batticaloa and Ampara districts during the evening or night, the statement added.

General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimise damages caused by temporary localised strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.

Fairly strong winds about (40-45) kmph can be expected at times in western slopes of the central hills, Northern, North-central and North-western provinces and in Trincomalee and Hambantota districts.

Marine Weather:

Colombo (LNW): The voting for the second reading of the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill has been concluded in Parliament this (07) evening.

The Bill, accordingly, secured 103 votes in favour and 58 votes in opposition, and passed in Parliament with a majority of 45 votes in its second reading.

The Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill in its third reading was passed with several amendments.

By: Isuru Parakrama

Colombo (LNW): The prevailing showery conditions in South-West part of the island is likely to continue further due to the active South West Monsoon conditions over the island, the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre of the Department of Meteorology said in a statement today (07).

Heavy showers about 100 millimetres are likely to occur at some places in Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Galle, Matara, Puttalam, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya districts, the statement added.

By: Staff Writer

Colombo (LNW): Former Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal yesterday urged the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) to follow its own advice on lowering interest rates.

Cabraal, joining the television news program, said it is ironic that the CBSL is requesting commercial banks to reduce interest rates when they themselves are paying higher interest rates every week.

“Just yesterday or two or three days ago, the Treasury bill rate went up to over 19%. When the Government and the CBSL on behalf the Government is paying 19% they are asking the banks to reduce their lending rates.

If you want the banks to reduce the rates then you also must ensure that the reduction is taking place from the Government side,” he said.

Cabraal said people do not merely heed to statements of the CBSL but also observe its actions. “If every week the Central Bank is increasing the interest rates, the banks will question as to what is going on and wonder how they can compete with gaining advances and deposits if the CBSL is paying 19% plus for deposits,” he noted.

“We have also got to see that there is a reflection of the ground situation on these rates. We can say goodbye to growth with these interest rates,” he added.

The former governor noted that economic growth has been negative every quarter since the increase of interest rates. “We must revamp these interest rates if we are to witness growth once more,” he opined.

Sri Lanka kept its key interest rates unchanged in a surprise move on Thursday as it chose to wait for the impact of its rate cuts over the previous two months filter through the crisis-hit economy.

It also announced administrative measures to bring down lending rates in certain categories that it said remained high.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) kept its standing deposit rate and standing lending rate unchanged at 11% and 12% respectively. CBSL had cut rates by a total 450 basis points over June and July.

The bank said it would take targeted administrative measures to reduce specific lending rates it considered excessive and direct banks to reduce overall rupee lending interest rates by an appropriate margin in the period ahead.

CBSL had previously raised rates by a record 1050 basis points till March to contain inflation and cool the teetering economy.

Sri Lanka’s economy crumpled last year after its foreign exchange reserves dropped to record lows, leaving the country struggling to pay for essential imports, decimated the currency, and sent inflation soaring.

Sri Lanka’s key inflation index peaked at 70% year-on-year in September but came down to 6.3% in July after the island nation locked down a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

By: Staff Writer

Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka expects to forge major deals in its debt restructuring this month as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conducts the first review of its USD 3 billion loan program.

Legislators this week are likely to pass a bill amending tax laws, clearing a legal hurdle and allowing a domestic bond swap to be completed by mid-September, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe said at an investor forum on Tuesday (05 Sep.).

Meanwhile, officials are also expected to reach an agreement on how to restructure its foreign debt this month, he said.

After months of delay, Sri Lanka is stepping up efforts to fast-track its debt restructuring to help secure more funds from the IMF and set its economy back on track after it defaulted in 2022.

Sri Lanka’s dollar bondholders and lenders like China and India are closely watching the local debt exchange as creditors seek equal treatment.

Sri Lanka has met International Monetary Fund quantitative targets for June 2023 except state revenues, Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said.

The IMF program has a set of quantitative targets listed as ‘performance criteria’ which has to be mandatorily or seek a waiver and also indicative targets. The central government tax revenue floor of 1,300 billion rupees is an indicative target.

According to data already in the public domain, government tax revenues up to April was 742 billion rupees.

The performance criteria on the fiscal targets is the primary deficit of 113 billion rupees not the revenue target. By April the primary deficit was only 5.29 billion rupees. After June Sri Lanka has since hiked taxes on cigarettes and alcohol.

The IMF program had an inflation target of 31 percent measured by the Colombo Consumers Price Index. The actual was 12 percent.

The central bank was expected to bring down its net international reserves, which were a negative 3540 billion rupees by end December 2022 to 2830 million dollars (a 740 million dollar improvement) by June.

Sri Lanka’s gross reserves have now reached 3.5 billion dollars, Governor Weerasinghe said.Gross official reserves, not counting central bank borrowings, are up about 1.6 billion US dollars from December to June.

As interest rates fall, and credit recovers, the ability to collect reserves reduces. Analysts have warned that IMF programs usually fail in the second year, currencies depreciate due to rates being cut as inflation falls.

The falling currency then triggers public discontent, the electorate loses faith in reforms and reformist governments are overturned.