Veteran Journalist Bandula Padmakumara has passed away.
A pioneer in Sri Lankan media, Padmakumara’s most notable works are Mul Pituwa and Loka Sithiyama broadcast in Swarnavahini.
Padmakumara also served as a former Editor in Chief of Lakbima Newspaper and a former Chairman of Lake House.
He was 71 at the time of his demise.
The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation on February 22 has changed its trilingual logo into monolingual, following a resolution by the new Chairperson and the Board of Directors.
Accordingly, Rupavahini (රූපවාහිනී) is displayed only in Sinhala in the logo.
Sonala Gunawardena is currently the Chairman of the Rupavahini Corporation. Gunawardena was appointed following the resignation of Reginald Cooray, who had previously served as the Chairman of the Rupavahini Corporation and the Chairman of the National Library and Documentation Services Board.
Following the major transition in the logo of the state-run media body adored by generations for decades, the timing of news broadcast at night has also been changed. Accordingly, its prime time news which was telecast at 8 pm will be broadcast at 6.50 pm from now on.
The removal of trilingual Rupavahini has already been subject to severe criticism. Ruling Party MP Suresh Raghavan commented on Social Media that it is essential that all three languages are displayed in the logo.
MIAP
The Parliamentary team of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) staged a protest in the Chambers today (24) by holding posters and torches in objection to the ongoing four and a half hour power cut in the country.
The SJB MPs insisted that the government has failed and should be stepping down.
Meanwhile, Ruling Party MPs also expressed their objection stating that the SJB MPs bringing in torches into the Chambers threatens their security. They have complained the matter to the Speaker.
Amid the unrest, the sitting had to be adjourned for a while.
MIAP
The All Ceylon Bakery Owners’ Association states that bakery owners have become extremely helpless due to a number of issues affecting the running of the bakery industry. The president of the association, N.K. Jayawardene says that about 300 bakeries have been closed down so far.
Jayawardena says that the prices of wheat flour, palm oil, coconut oil and margarine have gone up by 100% over the past and that the products are not available in the market at the prevailing prices. Due to this situation bread production in active bakeries is done only 5 days a week.
He pointed out that if the necessary steps are not taken to solve the problems faced by the bakery owners, another large number of bakeries could be closed down and the bakery industry could collapse completely and requested the President to intervene to revive the bakery industry.
The government has recently taken steps to import rice to prevent the shortage of rice in the country due to the fertilizer crisis. Most of the rice was imported from Myanmar.
Meanwhile, Myanmar authorities have told the media that it is more profitable to export rice to Sri Lanka than to other countries. Due to this, the authorities have further stated that rice will be exported to Sri Lanka without any restrictions.
Exports of rice to other countries are done at a price between US $ 340-350 per metric ton of rice, however, Sri Lanka buys rice from Myanmar at US $ 440-450 per metric tonne. Accordingly, Myanmar’s additional profit from exporting rice to Sri Lanka is US $ 100 per tonne more than other countries.
In addition, the Myanmar authorities have stated that there are not many problems with the quality of rice exported to Sri Lanka.
Agreements have already been signed to purchase 150,000 metric tons of rice from Myanmar this year and 2023. Sri Lanka will spend an additional US $ 15 million on the project. It is approximately equal to 03 billion rupees.
Ukraine’s UN envoy has urged the security council to “stop the war” shortly after Putin announced a special military operation in eastern Ukraine.
“I would like to ask the ambassador of the Russian delegation to say on the record that this very moment your troops do not shell and bomb Ukrainian cities, that your troops do not move in the territory of Ukraine,” he said.
In response, Russia’s UN ambassador said: “This isn’t called a war this is called as a military operation in the Donbas.”
Russia has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and is targeting cities with weapons strikes, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a tweet.
Interfax Ukraine reported rocket attacks on military facilities throughout Ukraine and that Russian troops had landed in the southern port cities of Odessa and Mariupol. It also reported staff and passengers evacuating Kyiv’s Boryspil airport.
“Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes,” Kuleba said. “This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.”
AL JAZEERA
The new power cuts risk the revival of tourism on Sri Lanka’s southwestern beaches during its peak winter season, just as visitors have begun to return to the island since the Covid-19 pandemic broke.
A hit to the sector, which contributed to about 5% of the economy before Covid-19, may also mar plans to bolster the nation’s finances amid payments for costlier imports and dollar debt obligations, which have led to concerns of a sovereign default.
However the government will be taking every possible step to maintain uninterrupted power supply to tourism zones to avoid any inconvenience for tourists visiting the country.
Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have exceeded 155,000 so far, led by Russians, despite the challenges emanating from the global Covid-19 pandemic, Tourism Ministry data showed.
As per provisional data released by the Tourism Ministry, Sri Lanka has received 155,375 travellers as of 21 February.
During the first 22 days of February, a total of 73,048 tourists visited Sri Lanka, with an average of over 3,000 tourists per day.
Amidst a surge in its COVID cases, Russia continues to dominate among the top tourist source market for Sri Lanka with 24,889 followed by India with 20,561, UK 15,846, Ukrainian 12,501 and Germany 11,127.
In addition, tourists were also received from countries such as France, Poland, Kazakhstan, Australia and Maldives as of 21 February.
Given the sharp rebound in tourist arrivals this month, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga last week renewed monthly expectations to 200,000 travellers
Sri Lanka has registered 2,300 SUVs and imported 10,000 tractors in 2021, data show as import controls prevented highly taxed imports like cars and three wheelers from coming into the country.
Sri Lanka banned imports of most automobiles including three wheelers and motorcycles which give large revenues to the state, as money printing ratcheted up from February 2021 (monetary stimulus) creating forex shortages.
Meanwhile imports of low taxed items, such machinery and construction material, was encouraged including through artificially low interest rates, creating vicious cycled of revenue losses and more money printing, which in turn creates more forex shortages.
Sri Lanka had registered 2,384 SUVs in 2021 and 176 in January 2022, Sri Lanka’s vehicle registry data analyzed by JB Securities, a Colombo-based equities brokerage show.In January 176 SUVs were registered.
“SUV\crossovers recorded 176 units in Jan up from 100 units the previous month but down from 199 units 12 months ago,” the research house said in a note to clients.
“Mahindra accounted for 118 units through its KUV 100 model – a small cross over vehicle assembled locally by Ideal Motors. The records also show registration of 28 Toyota Land Cruiser jeeps – they were a gift from the government of Japan to the Sri Lanka Police.”
Knocked down vehicles components pay sharply lower rates of tax, reducing tax revenues to the state.
Sri Lanka had also registered 8,067 large tractors and 2,116 small tractors in 2021.
Regardless of the administration in power Sri Lanka’s policy makers and economists, steeped in Mercantilist ideology control trade after printing money to create forex shortages.
Then a series of cascading policy errors – also based on Mercantilist dogma – including banning highly taxed items worsen the economic crisis, drives the country into currency collapses and the International Monetary Fund.
Meanwhile Sri Lanka’s central bank Governor Nivard Cabraal has suggested that people who earn foreign exchange overseas be allowed to import cars and also pay taxes in US dollars to the state.
As part of legal tender laws to encourage domestic money, countries usually make citizens pay taxes in domestic money. However when money is printed making outflows exceed inflows, governments find it difficult to convert the rupees into dollars to pay overseas obligations.
Taking taxes directly into the state coffers in US dollars drops the intermediate stage.
In 2021, Sri Lanka imported 1.66 billion US dollars of food and beverages, another 418 million US dollars of wheat and maize.
In 2021 machinery and equipment imports topped 2.8 billion US dollars and building materials 1.2 billion US dollars.
Nihal Fernando, Additional Financial Manager of the Ceylon Electricity Board says that there is a need to increase electricity bills at this time.
He points out that the CEB has to incur an additional cost of around Rs. 400 crore per month due to the need to generate more electricity using fuel.
He also said that the value of electricity bills due to electricity consumers has increased to Rs. 4200 crore and the issuance of red notices has commenced accordingly.
President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has issued a special gazette notification revising the portfolios of several ministries.
Accordingly, the State Ministry of Prison Management and Prisoner Rehabilitation has been re-established by the gazette notification.
Lohan Ratwatte, who served as the Minister, resigned from his post until investigations were carried out into the Anuradhapura and Welikada prisons being raided at night and causing problems. The ministry was placed under the Minister of Justice.
