It is reported that Nimal Siripala de Silva has temporarily left the post of Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Aviation. It is reported that this step has been taken on the advice of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Allegations have been made regarding a transaction between the Ministry of Aviation and a private company and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa questioned this in Parliament yesterday.
The President has focused his attention on it and the President has given instructions to carry out investigations regarding the relevant accusation.
The President has instructed Nimal Siripala de Silva to temporarily withdraw from the ministry until the related investigations are completed.
Due to non-availability of diesel for running private buses, only 700 to 1000 buses are running across the country today and it has fallen to a minimum level between 7% and 10% and if diesel is not available today or tomorrow, the number of buses running will be reduced further. The General Secretary of the All Ceylon Private Bus Owners’ Association, Anjana Priyanjith said while speaking to the media today (06).
He mentioned that if diesel is properly supplied, about 18,000 buses can be run and the passengers can be provided with the necessary transport facilities.
Priyanjith said that although it is said that diesel is provided for private buses through SLTB depots, that diesel is provided only from 15 SLTB depots all over the island and in order to run private buses properly, they are requested to issue diesel from all 105 SLTB depots.
• The Minister of Finance has no appetite to resolve the current ‘dollar’ crisis. • All of Sri Lanka’s economic challenges are linked to the ‘dollar crisis’ • The Finance Minister’s plan is to borrow money from his friends. • The Minister of Finance has no future cash flow planning for the country. • Further, the Minister delays all matters related to dollar earnings, borrowings, bridging finance, available credit lines and essential goods credit lines.
As the country is grappling with its worst economic crisis to date, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in his capacity as the Finance Minister is only planning for disaster, alleged Investment Promotion Minister Dhammika Perera.
Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister spoke to international media and stated that tourists should not visit Sri Lanka during this period, leading to a potential collapse in the Tourism Sector as the island will be deprived of receiving any tourism receipts, the ex Business Mogul emphasised.
While the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) is formulating plans to attract additional revenues from expatriate remittances, the Finance Minister goes on speaking to international channels that the USD will move up to Rs. 450, further dropping the influx of foreign remittances, Perera alleged.
The Finance Minister’s fortnight update on the current crisis sends out a signal for the rich to migrate aboard with their money, the Investment Promotion Minister went on, adding that if so, this dollar crisis will continue. At present, 200 families are leaving the country on a monthly basis and given an estimation that half a million dollars are taken by one family, there is an outflow of USD 100 million per month, he pointed out.
Inflation in Sri Lanka has never been this high, but the Finance Minister goes on making comments about slashing the current inflation without demonstrating a plan to do so, he alleged.
The skyrocketing interest rates have severely impacted negatively on the survival of Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs and other industries responding to the situation, while the Finance Minister goes haywire on backing his claim to slash the interest rates either, Perera noted.
The ex Business Magnet further emphasised that Wickremesoinghe wishes the exchange rate to be stabilised, however with no demonstration on how it should be, adding that the same flaw follows in his vague promise to getting the GDP ratio, which is currently at 140 per cent against Sri Lankan debt, to 95 per cent.
The Minister also publicly stated that Sri Lankans will only have two meals a day, but such claims could influence the rich to stockpile goods, further escalating the coming of a food crisis towards the island’s direction, Perera alleged.
Under these circumstances, the Finance Minister should immediately resign from his position, he added.
Railway General Manager Gamini Seneviratne says that due to the fuel crisis, railway workers have not been able to report to work.
Due to this, 26 of the 48 daily office train journeys have been suspended today. Accordingly, only 22 journeys are operating today.
Many passengers were inconvenienced due to the non-running of the train and some passengers were seen hanging insecurely not only from the footboards of the train carriages but also from the train engines.
Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that there is no shortage of medicines in the hospitals as stated and that medicines can be issued without any problem, but the situation in practice in the hospitals is quite different from that. The Government Medical Officers’ Association says that the clinics are not issuing medicine in limited amounts to the patients.
Dr. Prasad Colomboge, a member of the operating committee of the association, says that the question has now arisen whether the hospitals have the ability to issue medicines or not.
Colombage says that the medicines that were previously issued for a period of one month have now been limited to two weeks and due to the shortage of medicines in the hospitals, the doctors have had to prescribe them to be bought from outside.
He mentions that this kind of situation has arisen due to financial, transportation and dollar shortages faced by drug suppliers and according to the current situation, the price of drugs has increased by three to four times.
The opposition party leaders have reached an agreement in the Parliament yesterday (05) to form an all-party government.
It has been decided to appoint a committee headed by Member of Parliament Lakshman Kiriella and representatives of the opposition parties to deal with the formation of the all-party government, with the advisors of the opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and former president Maithripala Sirisena.
Opposition parties including Samagi Jana Balavegaya, Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Tamil National Alliance, as well as groups of independent MPs who have left the government have also participated in this, but National Jana Balavega MPs have not joined it.
The government is set to regularise the Sri Lanka casino industry to ease difficulties faced by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).
The Casino Business (Regulation) Act No. 17 of 2010 and the Betting and Gaming Tax Act No. 40 of 1988 provide for the regulation of the casino industry, and under Act No. 17 of 2010, licenses are required to operate casino businesses in Sri Lanka.
The Cabinet of ministers has approved a proposal submitted by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe in his capacity as the Finance Minister, regarding the regularisation of the casino industry in Sri Lanka
The proposal submitted by the Prime Minister to the Cabinet of Ministers in this regard points out that due to the necessary orders to enforce the provisions of the said Act not been issued so far, no license has been issued to any casino business under the said Act.
Under this set up it is difficult to formally collect taxes from the institutions currently engaged in the casino business as a result, the cabinet memorandum revealed.
In an article published in Times online web site on May 31 it has been highlighted that Sri Lanka’s Betting and Gaming tax law will be amended to provide more teeth to the Inland Revenue Department to crack down on casinos which are evading the payment of taxes using loopholes in the existing law.
The tax rates pertaining to Betting and Gaming Levy have not been revised from 2015 onwards. Hence, following amendments are proposed with regard to Betting and Gaming Levy effective from January 1, 2023, Prime Ministers office said. .
The Annual Levy for carrying on the business of gaming will be increased to Rs. 500 million from Rs. 200 million
Annual Levy for betting will also be increased to Rs. 5 million from Rs. 4 million when it is carried out through agents.
Annual levy betting is to be increased to Rs. 1 million from Rs. 0.6 million when it is carried on using live telecast facilities.
The annual levy will be increased to to Rs. 75,000 from Rs. 50,000 when betting is carried on without the use of live telecast facilities
The levy on Gross Collection of betting centres will be increased to 15 per cent from 10 per cent.(Bandula) .
In addition to the tax policy reforms, steps will be taken to strengthen revenue administration at revenue collecting agencies such as Sri Lanka Customs, Inland Revenue Department and Excise Department with the infusion of technology and rigorous tax audits, Finance Ministry sources disclosed.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) advises against all but essential travel to Sri Lanka, due to the impact of the current economic crisis. This advice does not apply to airside transit through Sri Lanka’s international airport.
Sri Lanka is experiencing a severe economic crisis which has led to shortages of basic necessities including medicines, cooking gas, fuel and food. There is a major shortage of fuel (diesel and petrol) affecting transport, businesses, and emergency services. There are daily power cuts due to electricity rationing. This has led to protests and violent unrest. Further protests, demonstrations, roadblocks and violent unrest could occur at short notice.
The Association of Medical Specialists in an open letter urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to step down.
The AMS urged the President and the Prime Minister to make way for a credible all-party interim government to provide solutions to the prevailing crisis befallen Sri Lanka.
Upon the stepping down of the President and the Prime Minister and the formation of a credible all-party government, such a body should take over for a specified period to implement a common minimum effective programme to take the country out of this economic and social crisis, it pointed out.
