Tag: Finance

Oct 28, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s revenue authority is holding a ‘national tax week’ where the public can interact with their staff in the first week of November in a bid to get more people to pay tax without fear an official said. “We want to stop the fear and uncertainty (biya har saker) […]

Oct 27, 2012 (LBO) – The Asian Development Bank said it is giving 300 million US dollar loan to support a 400 million US dollar program by Sri Lanka to boost water supply and sanitation in the island’s capital. Critics say rules of China and Vietnam in particular have bowed to the aspirations of their […]

Oct 25, 2012 (LBO) – Taxes collected by Sri Lanka’s internal revenue office rose 8 percent to 369 billion rupees up to September 2012, from a year earlier commissioner general Mallika Samarasekera said. With a so-called simplified VAT (SVAT) system coming into effect, refunds made to exporters had fallen she said. Sri Lanka’s value added […]

Oct 23, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has bettered its ranking to 81 from 89 in an ease of doing business ranking compiled by the World Bank and International Finance Corporation by computerizing key processes. In South Asia Maldives was ranked 95, Pakistan 107, Nepal 108, Bangladesh 129, India 132, Bhutan 138 and Afghanistan 168. […]

Oct 23, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has kept its key policy rate at which money is injected in to the banking system unchanged at 9.75 percent and private sector credit was slowing as expected, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said. The currency can also strengthen and reserves can be built up if the state […]

Oct 22, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s parliament has no real control over public finances with the arm of the government not even having a budget committee, though the country’s constitution says otherwise, a legislator said. But in countries where liberal thought is not valued, and where nationalism and interventionism prevails, parliamentary sovereignty can lead […]

Oct 18, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank will gradually sell down its Treasury bill stock, as they come up for maturity, Governor Nivard Cabraal said, in a move which can strengthen the island’s rupee peg and increase foreign reserves. A T-bill sell-down will stop the rupees from being given as loans by banks, […]

Oct 18, 2012 (LBO) – The United States has given 3. 0 million US dollars to three organizations to help re-settle war refugees with sufficient shelter, access to water and sanitation, the US embassy in Colombo said. The money will be used in Mullaitivu and Killinochchi districts in Sri Lanka’s north, by three charities; ZOA […]

Oct 16, 2012 (LBO) – Debating whether Sri Lanka’s rupee is ‘overvalued’ is a wasteful exercise as models used to determine some intrinsic value of an exchange rate are not worth the paper they are written on, an International Monetary Fund official said. “Economists – we – have these models,” IMF’s resident representative Koshy Mathai […]

Oct 14, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s consumer affairs authority, which has imposed price controls on chicken and cement, has raised the prices of the items media reports said. Poultry which is under price control also has import protection. Sri Lanka’s cost of production of poultry is artificially high duty to import protection given to […]

Oct 13, 2012 (LBO) – Not a single representative of the public or business community that had met Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also finance minister, ahead of next month’s budget said the deficit was too large, an official said. Critics say the ruling political elite of all hues, has successfully maintained a […]

Oct 12, 2012 (LBO) – A separate mission would arrive in Sri Lanka to have discussion on an ongoing program with Sri Lanka with the end of a successful 2. 5 billion US dollar standby arrangement, an International Monetary Fund official said. IMF’s resident representative in Colombo Koshy Mathai said a mission that had just […]