760 people who had applied for dual citizenship in this country have been issued with relevant Dual citizenship today (06).
Investment Promotion Minister Dhammika Perera said that a special policy decision was reached today to carry out the process of issuing dual citizenship in this country without delay.
Accordingly, dual citizenship will be issued every week on Monday for the people who have received security clearance. A person who has received clearance from the Ministry of Defense will avoid long delays in issuing dual citizenship and it can take a maximum of 6 days for a person to receive dual citizenship.
About three weeks ago, Lanka News Web reported that a group of MPs of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna has asked President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to at least remove Ranil Wickramasinghe from the post of Finance Minister.
They demanded that Wickramasinghe should be removed from the post of Finance Minister as he has failed to bring foreign exchange to solve the economic crisis as he promised when he assumed the office of Prime Minister and since Wickramasinghe has not yet received an answer to the problems faced by the people including the rising cost of living. It was also reported that they had presented continuously on several occasions.
Accordingly, it was believed that if the President removed Mr. Wickramasinghe from the post of Finance Minister, Wickramasinghe would also resign from the post of Prime Minister.
However, at present, internal sources say that Wickramasinghe will not step down from the post of Prime Minister even if he is deprived of the position of Finance Minister.
Internal sources stated that since he became the Prime Minister with the rarest opportunity in history and the only way to recover the United National Party, which has fallen to zero, is to hold on to the position of Prime Minister. Ranil Wickramasinghe is firmly determined not to step down from the post of Prime Minister under any circumstances.
New Chairman Krishan Balendra, Vice Chairman Dinesh Weerakkody
Vajira Ellepola assumes duties as new Director General
Chairman Krishan Balendra
Vice Chairman Dinesh Weerakkody
The 93rd Annual General Meeting of the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon (EFC) was held on 29 June.
The highlight of the AGM was the appointment of the Council and the Board of Trustees for the financial year 2022-2023. Krishan Balendra was appointed as the new Chairman succeeding Vish Govindasamy while Dinesh Weerakkody was appointed as the Vice Chairman.
The newly appointed Chairman Krishan Balendra who is also the Chairman of John Keells Holdings, one of the largest diversified conglomerates in the country, brings a wealth of experience. Balendra thanked the members for placing confidence in him and invited the members to closely engage with the EFC. Joining the new Chairman is the newly appointed Vice Chairman Dinesh Weerakkody, Senior Company Director. He is also the former Chairman of the Employees’ Trust Fund Board of Sri Lanka, Commercial Bank of Ceylon and Hatton National Bank.
13th Director General Vajira Ellepola to have taken the reins of the EFC with effect from 1 July, is an Attorney-at-Law and has been with the EFC since 2000. An experienced professional in the fields of employment law and industrial relations, Ellepola has held the position of the Deputy Director General of the EFC since July 2015.
Established in 1929, the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon (EFC) is the national employers’ organisation in Sri Lanka. In its nearly 100-year journey, EFC had committed itself to adapt to the requirements of a dynamic membership to promote productive employment and social harmony. Apart from the wide range of services EFC provides to its member organisations which consist of individual employers representing different business interests, the organization has today evolved into a formidable body which commands the attention of the policy makers in relation to labour policy. The EFC is recognised by all Trade and Business Chambers in Sri Lanka as the ‘voice of business’ in relation to employment law and industrial relations here at home.
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.
