August 02, Colombo (LNW): Several spells of showers will occur in Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces and in Galle, Matara, Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts, the Department of Meteorology said in its daily weather forecast today (02).
Showers or thundershowers may occur at a few places in Badulla, Ampara and Batticaloa districts in the evening or night.
Strong winds of about 50 kmph can be expected at times over Western slopes of the central hills and in Northern, North-central, and North-western provinces and in Trincomalee, Monaragala and Hambantota districts.
Fairly strong winds about (30-40) kmph can be expected at times elsewhere of the island.
Marine Weather:
Condition of Rain:
Showers will occur at several places in the sea areas off the coast extending from Puttalam to Matara via Colombo and Galle.
Winds:
Winds will be westerly to south-westerly and wind speed will be (30-40) kmph. Wind speed can increase up to 60 kmph at times in the sea areas off the coasts extending from Kankasanthurai to Puttalam via Mannar and from Hambantota to Pottuvil. Wind speed can increase up to 50 kmph at times in the sea areas off the coasts extending from Trincomalee to Kankasanthurai via Mullaittivu and from Puttalam to Hambantota via Colombo and Galle.
State of Sea:
The sea areas off the coasts extending from Kankasanthurai to Puttalam via Mannar and from Hambantota to Pottuvil will be rough at times. The sea areas off the coasts extending from Trincomalee to Kankasanthurai via Mullaittivu, and from Puttalam to Hambantota via Colombo and Galle can be fairly rough at times. Naval and fishing communities are requested to be attentive in this regard.
August 02, Colombo (LNW): MP Dhammika Perera is set to be nominated as the Presidential Candidate for the Ruling Party Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) ahead of the upcoming Presidential Polls, party internal sources confirmed.
Accordingly, the decision to appoint him as the Party candidate will be announced in ceremonial fashion on August 07, confirming LNW’s prediction made nine months ago,
LNW predicted Mr. Perera’s potential candidacy for the upcoming Polls on December 18, 2023.
Perera, whose reputation as an investor both local and overseas and an entrepreneur made him the number one business magnet in Sri Lanka, possesses knowledge and experience on business operation unparalleled to any other personnel of his capacity.
His expertise includes sectors such as the Banking and Finance Sector, Apparel Sector, Industrial Sector, Agricultural Sector ans Tourism, amongst other things.
His unparalleled contribution to education made his brand name more popular in Sri Lanka’s Educational Sector, in which he made the possibility of modernising children’s education into a reality, hence his online educational platform DP Education.
DP Education was appraised on an international level, where Perera’s commitment to DP Education school was recognised as the number one digital educational platform in Asia. DP Education paved the way for over 1.5 million Sri Lankan students to study courses, for free.
The DP Education IT Campus project initiated by Perera aiming the creation of one million jobs in the Information Technology field in Sri Lanka built 145 branches throughout the island, providing free online courses, especially targetting computer language-based modules, and making it possible for more than 135,000 students to study them.
The DP Education project, together with the DP Education IT Campus, paved the way for more than 250,000 children in Sri Lanka to study aiming career development, for free.
Perera remains the only candidate contesting the upcoming Presidential Election with a manifesto consisting of a formal and practical model for economic development in Sri Lanka and an action plan for nation-building.
August 01, Colombo (LNW): Pakistan looks to gain insights from Sri Lanka’s recovery from its economic crisis. Pakistan praised Sri Lanka’s leadership and its populace for managing the debt crisis effectively and expressed a desire to learn from Sri Lanka’s experiences.
On Tuesday, the Seventh Round of Bilateral Political Consultations between Sri Lanka and Pakistan concluded successfully at the Pakistani Foreign Ministry in Islamabad. This round marked a return to in-person meetings after a hiatus of over three years, with the previous round being held virtually in December 2020.
The consultations, which provided a thorough review of the current state of relations between the two countries, were co-chaired by Foreign Secretary Aruni Wijewardane of Sri Lanka and Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi.
Discussions covered a wide range of cooperative areas, including economy and trade, defense and security, education, culture, media and sports, consular issues, agriculture, and technology. Both sides also deliberated on their joint efforts in multilateral and regional forums.
The Sri Lankan delegation extended their gratitude to Pakistan for its unwavering support in various international forums over the years.
Pakistan’s delegation praised Sri Lanka for its successful stabilization of the debt crisis and noted that there are valuable lessons to be learned from Sri Lanka’s experience. Both nations underscored the significance of high-level political exchanges in strengthening their bilateral relations and discussed the possibility of a forthcoming visit by a foreign minister from Sri Lanka to Pakistan.
The delegations agreed on the importance of boosting connectivity and bilateral trade to foster economic growth, with a particular focus on enhancing air connectivity between the two countries. They also saw potential for increasing tourism and strengthening people-to-people ties through cultural, religious, and sports interactions.
Cooperation was also agreed upon in combating transnational organized crime, such as drug trafficking, which affects both countries.
At the end of the meeting, Foreign Secretary Aruni Wijewardane presented Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi with five eye corneas donated by the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society, continuing the longstanding tradition of Sri Lanka providing such donations to Pakistan.
The next session of Sri Lanka-Pakistan Bilateral Political Consultations is scheduled to take place in Colombo at a mutually agreed time.
August 01, Colombo (LNW): Thales and Just in Time Technologies (JITT) have secured a contract to provide biometric passports for Sri Lanka, with an initial batch of 100,000 chip-based passports due by July 2025. The agreement includes an annual supply of one million passports for five years, with the first biometric passports expected to be issued in January.
Initially, the Ministry of Public Security had called for international tenders to outsource the printing of five million ePassports over ten years. This tender was canceled when the Ministry decided that the Department of Immigration and Emigration’s (DIE) updated infrastructure could handle the printing. A new tender was then issued solely for the procurement of ePassport books. Thales and JITT won the tender.
DIE has mandated online applications for passports, limiting daily applications to 800, down from 3,000, causing public outcry and significant revenue loss. Controller General Harsha Illukpitiya explained that this measure aims to reduce congestion and manage the limited stock of machine-readable passports (MRPs) until the ePassports are rolled out next year.
Thales and JITT have since informed that the current DIE infrastructure cannot print the new ePassports, proposing instead to provide a complete printing infrastructure at a per-transaction fee. This proposal has led to a Cabinet paper seeking approval to proceed, which deviates from the original tender terms and violates government procurement policies.
This situation parallels the VFS Visa issuance controversy, where DIE paid a foreign company in Dubai for tourist visa processing, despite having a robust, cheaper system provided locally. The ePassport process seems to be heading in the same direction, with the Ministry supporting the new supplier against their own policies.
The tender documents required the selected company to have the necessary technology and expertise for secure biometric passport production, adhering to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards. Developed and developing countries use ePassports for secure international travel.
The DIE has mandated prior online registration for passport applications until the ePassports are available. Recently, a lack of public awareness about this requirement led to large crowds at the DIE head office.
The government plans to replace the current N Series MRPs with ePassports by next year. After an eight-year delay, the project was reactivated, awarding Thales and JITT the contract to supply five million ePassports over ten years. The first batch of 100,000 ePassports is expected by January 2025, with an annual need for one million passports.
To meet current demand, 300,000 MRPs will be procured from the same company, bypassing the tender process and violating procurement policies. A Cabinet paper proposes overhauling the IT infrastructure for ePassport printing, expected to take 18 months, risking a passport shortage. The original tender was for ePassport books only, with printing to be done using the existing infrastructure.
Thales has proposed a fee-based personalisation system, stating that the current infrastructure cannot handle their ePassports. This would cost over Rs.1 billion and involve procuring their Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) system, essential for ePassport functionality. This proposal, submitted without a tender process, could result in significant public expense and the abandonment of the current personalisation system.
August 01, Colombo (LNW): Offering a sneak peek view of the consumer markets in the foregoing quarter, Ceylon Cold Stores PLC reported better top and bottom lines, which showed signs of continued recovery in consumer spending.
The John Keells Holdings subsidiary reported a top line of Rs.38.1 billion in the April-June quarter, the company’s first fiscal quarter (1Q25), up 10 percent from the same period in 2023.
The operating profits however surged by 69 percent to Rs.2.33 billion.The group’s manufacturing segment, which produces Elephant House-branded frozen confectioneries, beverages, dairy products and others, reported revenues of Rs.8.42 billion for the quarter, up 14.6 percent from the same period in 2023.
This reflects that the consumer is gradually returning to consumer discretionary items, which they for a long period stayed away from, due to the runaway inflation and also the sky-high interest rates, which effectively killed the demand for things other than for the staples.
Meanwhile, the group’s retail business, represented by the Keells Super supermarkets, also showed strengthening results, with the quarter registering a revenue of Rs.30.52 billion, which translated into an 8.4 percent growth from the same period a year ago.
The earnings of the two segments rose by at least three folds.The company, at a consolidated level, reported earnings of Rs.1.24 a share or Rs.1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to Rs.0.34 a share or Rs.322.17 million in the year earlier period.
The top and bottom-line performances are a reflection of a clear turnaround in the company’s performance across its two key business segments.
Meanwhile, the net finance cost also fell sharply by 38 percent to Rs.596.4 million in the quarter, partly as a result of the decline in the borrowings and also due to the softening interest rates.
Ceylon Cold Stores to a larger extent offers clues about the Sri Lankan consumer, as he is gradually picking up from the distressed conditions in the last two years.
The company’s higher top line shows that the consumer is loosening his purse strings while the expanding bottom line shows the company is benefitting from the cooler inflation and lower borrowing costs, in addition to its own efficiency enhancing measures.
The company’s share ended unchanged at Rs.56.10 yesterday. The company declared a first interim dividend of 73 cents.John Keells Holdings PLC owns a 70.66 percent stake in Ceylon Cold Stores.
August 01, Colombo (LNW): Minister of Power and Energy, Kanchana Wijesekera, has confirmed that the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CEYPETCO) will maintain an uninterrupted fuel supply across the country.
Announcing on ‘X’, he reassured that CEYPETCO holds a buffer stock of all fuel products.
He also mentioned that the refinery, currently undergoing its annual maintenance, will resume operations in mid-August.
Reviewed the fuel cargo plan for the next 6 months, stock availability, storage capacity, distribution plan, placement of orders and refinery operations with the CPC management yesterday.
The CPC maintains a buffer stock of all products and will continue an uninterrupted supply… pic.twitter.com/zP6ukFLL9A
This update followed a comprehensive review of the fuel cargo plan for the next six months, stock levels, storage capacity, distribution strategy, order placements, and refinery operations with the CEYPETCO management.
Additionally, the minister reviewed stock and cargo plans of Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC), China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), and US-based RM Parks Inc.
August 01, Colombo (LNW): The Sri Lankan Rupee indicates slight appreciation against the US Dollar today (01) in comparison to yesterday, as per the official exchange rates released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).
Accordingly, the buying price of the US Dollar has dropped to 297.79 from Rs. 297.85, and the selling price to Rs. 307.08 from Rs. 307.17.
August 01, Colombo (LNW): The Sri Lankan Rupee indicates steadiness against the US Dollar today (01) in comparison to yesterday, as per leading commercial banks in the country.
At Peoples Bank, the buying price of the US Dollar has dropped to Rs. 296.89 from Rs. 297.14, and the selling price to Rs. 307.54 from Rs. 307.80.
At Commercial Bank, the buying price of the US Dollar has increased to Rs. 296.69 from Rs. 296.67, and the selling price remains unchanged at Rs. 306.50.
At Sampath Bank, the buying and selling rates of the US Dollar remain unchanged at Rs. 298 and Rs. 307, respectively.
August 01, Colombo (LNW): The Government is planning to pass a law implementing vehicle import standards to prevent malpractices and irregularities in the current process before removing the present restrictions finance ministry sources said.
The state authorizes are compelled to take this decision in the wake of directives issued by a parliamentary committee on present scheme of importing e-vehicles for foreign expatriate workers.
The gradual increase in dollar reserves and the rise in the value of the rupee will allow the import of vehicles at least by next year, Finance State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.
The committee appointed to carry out a comprehensive study to systematically remove restrictions on the import of vehicles has already made its recommendations, he added.
Cabinet of ministers have recently approved the extension of an electrical vehicle import license scheme, for Sri Lankan expatriates, till June 30.
The Chairman of the Committee on Public Finance Dr. Harsha de Silva noted that there is no transparency in the scheme of providing fully electric vehicle licenses to Sri Lankans working abroad.
He issued directive to the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, Sri Lanka Customs and the Ministry of Labor and Foreign Employment carryout a full analysis one e-vehicle importation as it appears that there are many issues pertaining to the matter.
Dr de Silva further instructed that a report be submitted within two weeks on this issue. Furthermore, until the analysis is received, it is not possible to give approval to the relevant gazette extending the period of licensing, he added.
Instructions have been given to find out whether foreign remittances, which is the desired objective is received at a significant level through this system.
The committee also stated that through this, vehicles with a tax relief amounting to Rs. 100 million have been imported. It was disclosed that 1,019 licenses have been granted so far and $109.8 million remittances have been received through this.
The officials also said that the value of the licenses granted so far amounts to $46 million, According to Sri Lanka Customs, the Ministry of Foreign Employment has appointed facilitators to import electric vehicles on behalf of migrant workers.
These fraudsters have undervalued the vehicle by registration and deregistration in another country after importing it from the country of manufacture and thereby evade the luxury tax when the vehicle is imported to Sri Lanka.
The President’s Secretary instructs the Public Security Ministry to ensure adequate police personnel for the upcoming Presidential Election following a request from the Election Commission: Concerns arose after a Supreme Court order restrained Deshabandu Tennakoon from acting as IGP: The ministry assured the Election Commission of necessary security measures after discussions with Senior DIG Asanka Karawita.
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa raises concerns that the government may be attempting to disrupt the upcoming elections by withholding allowances from Grama Niladhari officers: commends their essential grassroots work and criticises the lack of progress in addressing their pay and service issues: Despite a planned pay increase by the Election Commission for their service at elections, Premadasa doubts its implementation, fearing it could be a tactic to undermine the election process.
The Central Committee of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) declares its support for President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the upcoming presidential election: During a meeting on July 31, the SLFP’s Politburo and Central Committee resolved to back Wickremesinghe, with MP Duminda Dissanayake stating that Wickremesinghe was the only candidate to formally request their support: Additionally, 92 MPs, including Ministers and State Ministers, have recently pledged their backing for Wickremesinghe, despite the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) deciding to field their own candidate.
The Election Commission urges presidential candidates to make their cash deposits promptly for the upcoming election: By August 01, six candidates, including Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sarath Keerthirathne, Oshala Herath, ASP Liyanage, Sajith Premadasa and Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe had made their deposits: Nominations close on August 15, with the election scheduled for September 21.
Shantha Weerasinghe, Secretary to the Ministry of Industries, submits the “National Industry Policy” and 2023-2027 strategic plan to boost Sri Lanka’s manufacturing sector: The plan targets increasing the sector’s GDP contribution from 16% to 20% by 2030, enhancing entrepreneurship, and industrial exports: Initiatives include regulatory amendments, online registration, and financial support for SMEs: Revitalised state enterprises and a growing gem and jewellery sector are also key highlights.
In Q124’, Sri Lanka’s insurance sector reported a 7.39% increase in Gross Written Premium (GWP) to Rs. 78,589 mn: Long-Term Insurance GWP grew by 19.26% to Rs. 40,230 mn, whilst General Insurance GWP declined by 2.75% to Rs. 38,358 mn: The sector’s total assets rose by 10.88% to Rs. 1,098,988 mn, with significant growth in PBT by 35.06% to Rs. 12,332 mn.
Controversy sparks as President Ranil Wickremesinghe appoints U.D. Chandana Jayalal as the new Chairman of the Central Environment Authority (CEA), effective 30th July, replacing Venura Fernando without explanation: CEA unions oppose Fernando’s removal, praising his integrity and questioning the timing amidst elections: The matter has been reported to the Election Commission and PAFFREL amidst concerns of political motives.
Public Security Minister Tiran Alles says passport issuance in Sri Lanka will be limited over the next two months as the country prepares to roll out its first e-passports: This adjustment is due to various technical and logistical challenges that need to be addressed before the arrival of e-passports in mid-October: During this period, the immigration department will continue to issue passports for urgent travel needs, maintaining a daily issuance of 1,000 passports: Alles notes historically, only 30% of passports issued were used for travel, with the rest obtained for safekeeping: adds if the e-passport system is not ready by mid-October, the issuance of regular passports will continue.
The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CEYPETCO) announces the monthly fuel price revision will not take place in August, and the prices of fuel, therefore, will remain unchanged for the month of August.
Sri Lanka Cricket captain Charith Asalanka expresses disappointment in the team’s batting performance after their 3-0 T20I series defeat to India: Despite strong starts from the openers, the middle order faltered, leading to a series sweep by India: criticises poor shot selection and late-order struggles, though he praised the bowlers: hopes for improvement in the upcoming ODIs and stressed the need for better mental and physical preparation.
