All Blogs
‘s Central Bank stays pat on interest rates
Feb. 16 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank Thursday stayed put on policy rates for the second straight month, as it expects the 25-basis point hike last December to put the brakes on money supply growth. Overnight repurchase rate remains at 8.75 percent and the reverse repurchase rate stays at 10.25 percent, the bank said […]
Road Runner
Feb. 16 (LBO) – Transport experts say more private vehicles are coming into Colombo despite a drop in the number of people traveling to the city. Fewer bus runs and appalling service levels on public transport contributed to the rise in private vehicles entering Colombo, former National Transport Commission chief Prof. Amal Kumarage said Thursday. […]
Climbing Up
Feb. 16 (LBO) – State owned People’s Bank is hoping for a credit upgrade in the near future, a top official said. General Manager Asoka de Silva says a recent capital injection has strengthened its balance sheet, and profitability remains on track. “We are hoping that our rating would go up by at least one […]
Trend Setter
Feb. 16 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ceylinco Insurance Co. Ltd. said Thursday that they retained their market leadership in the insurance sector last year, with consolidated premium income of Rs 12.8 billion and a 32 percent market share in both Life and General insurance segments. Ceylinco Life saw premium income rise 21 percent to Rs. […]
Re-birth
Jan 16 (LBO) – Sri Lanka™s Registrar General™s Department will computerise its database of birth certificates issued since 1864, for easier access to public records. The country has no proper computerized birth certificate, death certificate and land deed database, with paper certificates still clogging up the system. The Registrar General of Sri Lanka Mr. L.K. […]
Healthy Eagle
Jan 15 (LBO) – Eagle Insurance notched up a 103 percent growth in net profits to Rs. 515 million for 2005, buoyed by rapid growth in its life and non-life businesses. Consolidated revenue growth for the insurance firm was up 15 percent from Rs. 3,728 million in 2004 to Rs. 4,277 million last year, the […]
Lead Runner
Feb. 15 (LBO) – Deutsche Bank’s Colombo branch has retained the top spot for custodian services among four key foreign banks operating in Sri Lanka, according to a global custodian review of emerging markets -LBO Newsdesk: LBOEmail@ The seventeenth global custodian survey, which covered 61 emerging markets, ranks agent banks based on client responses. Respondents […]
Betting Big
Feb. 15 (LBO) – Smaller lubricant players are asking the Sri Lankan government to scrap a five-year license fee and instead opt for a 0.5 percent tax on each firm’s turnover, an industry official said Wednesday. Last month, Sri Lanka doubled licence fees for lubricant operators fixing it at Rs. 10 million (US$ 100,000) for […]
Sri Lankan taxpayers too afraid of tax collectors to complain about mistreatment
Jan 15 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tax payers are too afraid of retaliation by tax collectors to complain about mistreatment. Sri Lanka appointed a tax ombudsman in September 2005 to mediate between the Department of Inland Revenue and the island’s small number of tax payers, as a way of easing strained relations. However the tax […]
Warning Message
Jan 14 (LBO) – The United Nations on Tuesday called on the Sri Lankan government and Tamil rebels to keep protection of children in mind at upcoming peace talks in Geneva. Of particular importance remains the unresolved situation of child recruitment, which led UNICEF to yet again appeal to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) […]