Category: Industry
Audit Rider
July 7, 2006 (LBO) – A parliamentary body which oversees public finances, plans to bring a law to beef up the office of Sri Lanka’s Auditor General, a senior legislator said. Meanwhile a parliamentarian has made statements claiming to be from another report due to be tabled shortly, that 360 billion rupees have disappeared to […]
Mortgage Crisis
July 6, 2006 (LBO) – A top Sri Lankan housing bank has asked the government to exempt housing mortgage lenders from upcoming law aimed at helping smaller defaulters, as it will curtail the growth of the entire housing loan market.HDFC Bank, a publicly listed bank originally set up by the government, is facing the threat […]
Warming Up
July 6, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka plans to issue spectrum for third generation or next generation mobile technology to cellular phone operators next week, the telecom watchdog said Thursday. Priced at 5-million dollars, third generation or 3G licenses allow operators to offer higher speed wireless services on the 2GHz (gigahertz band). “All four existing […]
Deep Cut
July 6, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s biggest mobile-phone operator Dialog Telekom Thursday slashed outgoing call charges by as much as 50 percent as the firm stepped up its expansion drive in the country. Call charges within the network from 11.00 pm to 6.00 am will go down by 50 percent to 2.00 rupees, while […]
It™s a Wrap
July 6, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has slapped a controversial tax on foreign commercials, Hollywood and Bollywood blockbusters, dramas and sitcoms from July 1, with funds collected ploughed back to develop the local film industry. The taxes range from 90,000 rupees for a 30 minute dubbed episode to a million rupees for each foreign […]
Nit Picking
July 6, 2006 (LBO) – India’s Commerce Minister has raised the red flag on Sri Lankan shipments of vanaspati, pepper and marble, as they are threatening to destabilise the giant neighbour’s domestic industry, the Indian embassy said in a statement Thursday. The statement comes as both nations last week concluded trade talks on forming a […]
Horror Movie
The government has finalised tax rates for imported movies, dramas, sitcoms and commercials, with a formal announcement expected on Thursday. Rates are likely to be 75, 000 rupees (750 dollars) for a 30 minute block that is not dubbed, going up to 90,000 rupees (900 dollars) for a dubbed half hour block. The Teledrama, Film […]
Big Slap
July 3, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Credit Information Bureau or CRIB has warned all banks to come clean and name large scale defaulters or risk paying a fine or prison term. Central Bank’s deputy governor Ranee Jayamaha says CRIB has warned errant banks to expect a fine of 50,000 rupees each for not disclosing […]
Money Talks
July 2, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has several unused credit lines awaiting disbursement, while small and medium industrialists complain that they cannot get loans. The Money Report talked to Lionel Somaratne, a veteran development banker who has been hired by the International Finance Corporation help improve SME access to finance and also improve the […]
Default Data
July 2, 2006 (LBO) – A senior central banker has strongly criticized the practice of banks of not reporting influential defaulting clients to the Credit Information Bureau (CRIB). Some banks have also started giving multiple identity card numbers of certain clients to the CRIB, in order to avoid being black listed by the credit information […]
Hungry Tax
PARIS, July 2, 2006 (AFP) – Passengers boarding planes in France are now paying a new tax on their tickets to help the world’s poor, after the measure came into effect on the weekend.The tax, championed by President Jacques Chirac and backed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, adds a surcharge of between one and […]
Pied Piper
July 1, 2006 (LBO) – Retired banker Lakhman Edward is one of the many few hundred investors bold enough to track their equity portfolio through the internet. Internet trading has been slowly picking up in this island nation of 19.5 million people where seasoned punters still prefer to use their relationship with stockbrokers to chart […]