The current heavy rains are expected to continue, due to the influence of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ – The region where the Northern Hemispheric wind and the Southern Hemispheric wind converge) located in the vicinity of the island, the Department of Meteorology said in a statement today (16).
Showers or thundershowers will occur at times in Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central and North-Western provinces and in Galle and Matara districts. Heavy showers above 100 mm can be expected at some places in Western, Sabaragamuwa and Centralprovinces and in Galle and Matara districts.
Showers or thundershowers will occur elsewhere over the Island during the afternoon or night. Fairly heavy showers above 75 mm can be expected at some places.
General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.
Marine Weather
Condition of Rain:
Showers or thundershowers will occur at times in the sea areas off the coast extending from Puttalam to Matara via Colombo. Showers or thundershowers may occur at several places in the other sea areas around the island during the afternoon or night.
Winds:
Winds will be south-westerly and wind speed will be (25-35) kmph. Wind speed may increase up to (45-55) kmph at timesin the sea areas off the coast extending from Galle to Pottuvil via Matara and Hambantota.
State of Sea:
The sea areas off the coast extending from Galle to Pottuvil via Matara and Hambantota will be rough at times. Temporarily strong gusty winds and very rough seas can be expected during thundershowers.
Sri Lanka Navy as of now has kept 36 relief teams ready to extend relief measures to people, in the backdrop of inclement weather conditions reported in several areas of the island.
Following the directives of Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Nishantha Ulugetenne, the Western Naval Command has sent 02 relief and rescue teams to Rathnapura and 04 teams to Kalutara, on standby.
In addition, 21 more relief and rescue teams in the Western Naval Command and 09 similar teams in the Southern Naval Command have been kept on their toes for swift deployment, if need be.
Cast aside party politics and commit to addressing the country’s food crisis- President advises officials in Ampara.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe emphasized that all should join together to solve the people’s food issues, casting traditional party politics aside.
The President made this observation addressing the public officers at an awareness program on the multi-sector mechanism to empower rural economic revitalization centers to ensure food security and nutrition at Hardy Advanced Technological Institute Auditorium in Ampara this morning (15).
The President further noted that no one would be allowed to starve despite the fact that the country is going through a very difficult time and pointed out the importance of successfully implementing the national food production program to prepare for a possible global food crisis in 2023.
The president also said that the agriculture modernization program would be implemented from next year concurrent to the food security program.
The implementation of the multi-sector mechanism to empower rural economic revitalization centers to ensure food security and nutrition in transforming the Ampara District also into a prosperous one with a blooming community was also discussed at length.
The Ampara district contributes 22 percent to the national paddy harvest and discussions were also focused on making the paddy cultivation in the Yala and Maha seasons a success.
It was also special feature that the President paid special attention to the issues faced by the government officials during the field work. The president was made aware of issues related to the agriculture and fisheries industry in the Ampara district and he directed the officials to address those issues. He also instructed to appoint a special committee to study those issues and report to him.
Following the discussion, the President made a scene visit to the Hardy ATI farm and planted a sapling to mark the occasion.
The statement made by President Wickremesinghe at the discussion at the Hardy ATI is as follows;
I am here to review the implementation of the Food Security Program in the Ampara District. We also identified the shortcomings in the implementation of the program at rural level. The problem of organic fertilizers was raised. The distribution of organic fertilizer was made by the
Ministry last year but this year we have left it to the companies. So those companies would provide the fertilizer.
One problem with regard to the fertilizer is that there are bills of Rs 8 billion from last year,due to companies which we have commenced settling. We have paid about Rs 4 billion out of it.
Secondly, discussions would be held with the Civil Security Department and the necessary officials for this endeavor. We did not mention one group in this program. That’s the armed forces that make a considerable contribution to the production. Therefore, we should also involve the armed forces in this program.
This is the first time such a program is implemented in Sri Lanka and as such a situation had not occurred in the country prior to this. Although food could not be brought in during the Second World War, the economy did not collapse. Now the economy has collapsed. This year the economy has recovered somewhat, in comparison to last year. But still there are issues. If we print money, the inflation rate would rise. There are limitations when dealing with the available money. Somehow, we should all come together to find solutions to these problems.
What the people need to do now is to commence the cultivation activities in their own areas and report it. Thereafter, our food security bureau will inform us about the types of food that we require more. There is no issue with paddy cultivation. If this season is successful, we will have an excess stock. Crops such as maize should be increased. I request you to obtain additional space for such crops and carry out the cultivation activities.
All the officers that are involved in this project at ground level have been included in this program. First, we need to ensure food security. Secondly, we need to commence a food program to eliminate malnutrition. We too would support them. Food banks and community kitchens have been created to support this program.
We are experiencing a difficult period and we must not allow anyone to starve for lack of food. As soon as the next Maha Season would be successful, we can move forward and we need to continue this program until the end of 2023. Even if our problem is solved, a global food crisis may arise, so we have to continue this program to ensure food security in our country Further, this food security mechanism does not stop there. While implementing the food security program, we will initiate the agriculture sector modernization program from next year. Accordingly, we have undertaken a new task and all are required to work together.
We don’t have party politics in this matter; traditional politics are useless in this endeavor. Put party politics aside. We need politics to solve the food crisis of the people. Let’s join this program. The production program should be commenced now and continue until April to get a successful harvest in the Maha season.
The first irrigation project that constructed after independence-the Gal Oya project by late D.S. Senanayake is in the Ampara district. Neither loans were obtained from anyone nor sought for assistance from anyone to construct it but with the rest of the money we had after granting a loan to England following the World War II we carried out the Gal-Oya project.
I expect the bulk of the country’s food requirement to be met from the Ampara District. I call on all MPs and organizers to unite, casting aside all political differences, in order to make this project a success. The Prime Minister and the Agriculture Minister will be visiting this area in the near future to inspect the progress of this project.
I am hopeful that you will all contribute to this project. We have never had to face the sort of challenges we face today. Neither have our parents or our grandparents had faced such a unique situation. If we identify the challenges before us and work accordingly, we can overcome them and forge ahead stronger than ever before. Hence, I request the assistance of everyone to make this endeavor a success.
President’s Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor on National Security Sagala Ratnayaka, Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake, Eastern Province Governor Anuradha Yahampath, Batticaloa District Development Committee Chairman W D Weerasinghe, Parliamentarians A L M Athaulla, H M M Haris, Faizal Cassim, Dr Thilak Rajapaksa, S M M Muszhaaraff, T Kalai Arasan, Sarath Weerasekara, United National Party Vice Chariman and former Minister Daya Gamage, former Minister Mrs Anoma Gamage, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on National Food Security Dr. Suren Batagoda, Eastern Province Chief Minister, Batticaloa District Secretary, Secretary to the Eastern Province Ministry of Agriculture, Chairman of the Eastern Provincial Council and the public officials representing the fields of agriculture, irrigation and Samurdhi fields in the Eastern Province too participated in this event.
The number of dengue cases may increase due to the prevailing rainy weather conditions, said the Ministry of Health in a warning to the public.
In a statement the Ministry noted that the number of dengue cases may surge in the next two-to-three weeks with the eggs laid by dengue mosquitoes as their activity has improvised with the rainy weather of the past few days.
The Ministry also urged the public to keep their surrounding environments clean so that mosquitoes cannot breed, adding that anyone sustaining fever for more than 24 hours should be taken for treatment from a qualified medical doctor.
Accordingly, the Health Ministry is urging the public not to get exposed to mosquito bites.
With 1,152 cases of dengue being reported in the last week, a total of 59,317 cases have been identified this year, disclosed the National Dengue Control Unit.
The Unit added that 19,912 cases were reported in the first ten months of 2021 and the figure has significantly surged this year, with the highest number of cases being found in Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts.
Meanwhile, Kandy, Galle, Jaffna, Kegalle, Puttalam and Kurunegala districts have also reported a higher number of dengue cases in 2022 compared to the year before.
Measures have been taken to declare 36 medical officer divisions as high risk zones given the spread of the disease, said the National Dengue Control Unit.
Scopes have been assigned to four state ministries of the Sri Lanka Government by the Cabinet Ministry under which each state ministry operates.
Accordingly, the State Ministry of Power and Energy, the State Ministry of Mass Media, the State Ministry of Transport and Highways and the State Ministry of Health meet their scopes as follows;
State Ministry of Power and Energy:
Ceylon Petroleum Corporation,
Ceylon Petroleum Stock Terminal Company,
Trincomalee Petroleum Terminal Company,
Sri Lanka Petroleum Development Authority
State Ministry of Mass Media:
Postal Department,
Department Of Government Printing,
Sri Lanka Press Institute
State Ministry of Health:
Private Medical Regulatory Council,
1990 Suvasarya Foundation,
National Tobacco and Alcohol Authority,
Department of Ayurveda,
Ayurvedic Medical Council,
Sri Lanka Ayurvedic Medicines Corporation
State Ministry of Transport:
Four institutes including;
Department of Motor Traffic
National Road Safety Council
National Institute of Transport Medicine
State Ministry of Highways:
Controlled companies under the Road Development Authority and Sahasya Investments Limited
In addition, the Maga Neguma Unit and the State Development and Design Corporation have been assigned to the State Ministry of Rural Road Development.
Nandalal Weerasinghe who was overlooked 4 times for the post of Governor moved to Australia to spend his retirement. Came back hurriedly to accept the appointment of Governor that had eluded him several times, when Cabraal was forced to resign by the Finance Minister, no one had wanted the job. The Governor’s first action was increasing rates by 100% and defaulting on a $ 78 Million USD payment.
The outcome of his appointment six months later is pandemonium in the markets. If this policy supported by Siriwardana is continued, it wont be long before local banks collapse because borrowers can’t service the loans. A collapse of the banking system could result in an unrepairable damage to the economy.
The huge increase in interest rates has also caused a shock to the informal economy. Nandalal according to some analysts has had no expertise beyond the CBSL and has been reacting in a straight jacket to the crisis. Why do we need an expensive Central Bank funded by the tax payers if the outcome is only economic mayhem.
Now the CBSL Governor with his sidekick Mahinda Siriwardana has brought in a set of tax proposals on behalf of the IMF that will end up not being “pay as you earn” but “pay everything you earn” What does the Tax Payer get in return? Not even social security. His own EPF and ETF too is embezzled by the CBSL. The entire tax revenue is misappropriated by officials and Politicians.
The new tax proposals clearly shows there is a total lack of consultation and has been done on the behest of the IMF. This is now clearly evident. The tax proposals need to be modified before implementation or else the next Aragalaya will end up in Nandalal’s and Siriwardana’s house. Both of them earn more than 2 million a month tax free salaries and in addition are on an IMF USD pension. Both of them have been put by the government to negotiate on behalf of the 22 million people.
In addition, Nandalal is a Australian PR.
The President and the government need their heads examined to put a team like this to negotiate with the IMF. For a start they are conflicted and lacks experience.
The government must modify the tax proposals or face extinct, whilst Nandalal and Weerasinghe will continue in office with the support Sajith Premadasa. The opposition leader has clearly demonstrated that political advantage is more important than the country’s interest. The Threshold for tax must be made 1.2 million annually, Change the rate of tax from 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and must be capped at 30%. Make withholding tax on interest a final tax for individuals, increase the rate to 10% with a senior citizen relief of Rs 1.2 million per annum.
We cannot allow bureaucratic parasites feeding on Sri Lankan taxpayers to destroy the livelihoods of ordinary law abiding people. Former Minister Weerawanse for a change was spot on when he said Nandalal Weerasinghe was paving the way for a revolution. What can he do if the President of the Country has no backbone.
Bangladesh is hopeful that Sri Lanka will repay the debt of $200 million that it owes to the country by March 2023.
Abdur Rouf Talukder, governor of Bangladesh Bank, provided a positive outlook on the matter after a meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart Nandalal Weerasinghe in the United States.
The central bank chief is now in Washington, DC, to attend the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
The two governors held a discussion on the sidelines of the seven-day event which began at the World Bank headquarters on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Talukder said, “We [Bangladesh] gave $200 million to Sri Lanka under a currency swap agreement. But due to Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, they could not return the money on time.”
In light of the crippling economic crisis that gripped the island nation, Bangladesh twice extended the deadline for repayment on Sri Lanka’s request, Talukder noted. “Sri Lanka is supposed to return it in three instalments in February and March 2023.”
On the talks with Weerasinghe, Talukder said, “We had a very good meeting. The governor assured me that they will meet the deadline for repayment. They are now restructuring their debts and have spoken to India, Japan and China about it.”
“And Sri Lanka is also working on a deal with the IMF that has also been roughly confirmed. A final agreement on the program will probably be reached between November and December.”
Last year, Bangladesh agreed to give Sri Lanka loans of at least $200 million from its foreign exchange reserves under a currency swap deal.
The credit was to be repaid in installments over three months, the central bank said at the time. But as the economic and political crisis in Sri Lanka worsened, its external debt became unsustainable. With political stability gradually being restored, Sri Lanka is now moving towards repaying its debts.
Central bank governors from Commonwealth countries held a meeting on Friday. Bangladesh has been given the opportunity to chair the meeting, according to Talukder.
The governor is leading an 11-member Bangladeshi delegation at the annual event in place of Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, who could not make the trip.
Talukder also met the vice chairman of the US banking giant JPMorgan and the managing director of Standard Chartered’s Asia-Pacific region.
“They want to offer various facilities to Bangladesh. We told them that we appreciated their interest. If we increase the size of our loans in future then why not. We asked them to support our private sector.”
As Sri Lankans continue braving their worst economic crisis since Independence, urban poverty on the island has tripled in the last year, from 5% to 15 %, according to a recent World Bank report.
Sri Lanka is experiencing “its highest poverty rate since 2009 [when the civil war ended], and an erosion of the steady gains in welfare made between 2006 and 2019,” the Bank noted in its recent Sri Lanka Development Update titled ‘Protecting the poor and vulnerable in a time of crisis’, released earlier this month.
While 80% of Sri Lanka’s poor still live in rural areas, the poverty rate in urban areas has tripled since 2021, and half the population in estate areas is currently living below the poverty line, it said, referring to Sri Lanka’s hill country that is home to the island’s historically-neglected Malaiyaha Tamils. About 1.5 lakh people, mostly women, from the million-strong community work in the tea estates, bringing in crucial foreign exchange to the country. They live in dire conditions, in colonial era line rooms, and labour hard to be paid their hard-won LKR 1000 daily wage (roughly ₹ 225).
Across districts, Mullaitivu in the Tamil-majority Northern Province continues to be the poorest — 57 % poverty recorded in 2022 — followed by neighbouring Kilinochchi and Nuwara Eliya in the Central Province [hill country], the report said.
The update comes while Sri Lanka struggles to cope with a harrowing economic crash, that forced the government to default on its $50 billion foreign debt in April. The following months witnessed enormous shortages of essentials, including food staples, fuel and medicines, as well as an unprecedented people’s uprising that ousted former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Backed by a parliamentary vote, senior politician Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected President in July. While essential supplies have since improved, with the government’s fuel rationing policy and repurposed World Bank funds, the fundamental macroeconomic problems remain.
Headline inflation increased to 69.8% in September 2022, while food inflation spiked to 94.9%. Amid frequent local media reports of hunger and starvation, resulting in a rise in school dropouts in some areas, the World Food Programme and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization have assessed that nearly a third of Sri Lanka’s 22 million population are food insecure since the crisis hit.
Emphasising that national security is ensured not only with the military, but also through food and economic security, President Wickremesinghe has called for “urgent measures”, his office said on Tuesday, following a review meeting of the government’s ‘National Food Security and Nutrition Assurance Programme’. His government, while facing growing public criticism over inadequate action and repression, is counting on a $2.9 billion package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that will be released only after Sri Lanka’s creditors commit to a debt restructuring programme.
Social security in focus
As part of its recommendations, the World Bank has urged the government to increase financing for social assistance; come up with a social protection strategy, that includes an operational Welfare Benefits Board and a Social Registry, to enable effective targeting of social security programmes, given the addition of “newly poor” families. It has also called for an increase in cash transfers, to account for the double-digit inflation.
Meanwhile, rights watchdog Amnesty International, in a report on the current economic situation in Sri Lanka released on October 4, made a case for universal social security that sections in Sri Lanka have also sought.
Highlighting limitations to existing programmes in Sri Lanka, Amnesty, in the report titled ‘We are near total breakdown’ pointed to the “lack of sufficient funding, inadequacy of the level of benefits, poor targeting, and the exclusion of a large proportion of people due to administrative inadequacies.” “The targeting of benefits based on levels of poverty has been criticised by experts for arbitrariness, excluding people who should be covered, stigmatising effects, and higher administrative costs,” the report said.
The current government is bankrupt in terms of economy as well as ideas, said Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa yesterday (14), addressing the occasion in which a bus was donated to Siddhartha National School in Galle, as the 36th donation of that kind under the ‘Sakwala’ initiative introduced by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) to improve education of Sri Lankan children.
The new tax imposition by the government, which is rather astonishing, has thrown the people of this country directly into fire and is staggeringly invasive on those who are already oppressed, the Opposition Leader pointed out.
Stressing that tax increment is not the only way to boost the state revenue, Premadasa reminded that dollars held by those disclosed in the ‘Pandora Papers’ should be retrieved.
Struggling shall not be carried out for political gain, but for the education of the children, he added.
Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring talks are now underway with creditors including China that will test whether Beijing and rival lenders such as India can put aside their differences to help the island escape its economic crisis.
“We are sure that China will assist us in these difficult times,” Sri Lanka’s president Ranil Wickremesinghe said in parliament recently as he announced the launch of talks with Beijing.
He added“It is our expectation now to come to a common agreement as soon as possible.”
Crisis-hit Governmet’s negotiations with its creditors have become an indicator of how creditors respond to rising global debt distress, with Beijing’s role drawing particular international inspection.
Sri Lanka currently struggles with goods shortages, rising hunger and political party disunity amidst mounting US $50bn in foreign debt to private bondholders such as Black Rock as well as countries including China, Japan and India.
The Paris Club creditor country’s last month reached out to China and India seeking to coordinate closely on Sri Lanka’s debt talks but is still awaiting a reply,informed international sources including reuter news agency revealed.
Paris Club officials have contacted two of Sri Lanka’s biggest bilateral creditors after the cash strapped government reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund board for a $2.9 billion loan in September.
The Paris Club still hasn’t received a reply from any of those two countries informed sources added.
Officials also met with Indian officials in Washington on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Chinese officials were not present in person.
Sri Lanka is grappling with the worst economic crisis in more than seven decades, with more than a quarter of its population struggling with food shortages, according to United Nations estimates.
The island nation of nearly 22 million people, is seeking an ad-hoc coordination platform to obtain financing assurances from bilateral lenders, which also include Japan.
As a middle-income country, Sri Lanka is not able to apply for relief under the Group of 20 common frameworks for debt treatments.
Its total foreign currency debt of $38.7 billion amounted to 48.2% of GDP, the latest IMF report showed in March.
The person added that India and China might be at odds on who should take the first step to engage in close coordination with the Paris club in Sri Lanka.
The country owes close to $14 billion to a wide range of bilateral creditors, of which 66% is owed to non-Paris Club members, according to Sri Lankan government data.
The country also needs to renegotiate around $12 billion with overseas bondholders after defaulting on its international debt earlier this year.
While the country is promoting the ad-hoc common framework, it is still unclear which country would chair a creditor committee
