Tag: lankabusinessonline

Giving a leg up to the local tourist trade, the government plans to develop Maskeliya and Puttalam as a future hotspot for the travel trade.Finance Minister K N Choksy says the lagoons in these regions will be developed to be a major resort area, with funds pumped in to expand the Bentota resort stretch.rn rnChoksy […]

Sri Lanka Wednesday announced it was shedding 300,000 state-sector jobs and offered a generous severance package that will effectively pay employees to stay at home for the rest of their lives.rnFinance Minister K. N. Choksy said the public sector reforms included a 30 percent trimming of the 1.09 million workforce, but instead of job cuts […]

Stockbrokers are sitting on a potential gold mine as a result of a new tax on equity trading proposed in the budget.rnrnrnrnrnrnNew Page 2rnrnrnrnrn A 15rnpercent tax on trading profits on share transactions, is just one of the newrntaxes slapped by the UNFs third budget, to strengthen governments finances.rn Equityrnmarket investors are the ones who […]

A blocked nose and bad cold ridden throat could not keep away Finance Minister K N Choksy, adorned in a blue checkered tie, from walking down the pink carpeted parliament aisles with the budget tucked away in a wood finished briefcase in one hand to come present the 2004 fiscal plan on a rained out […]

Finance Minister K N Choksy made the strongest statement yet that the government is committed to a strong rupee policy.ldblquote Sri Lankans have accepted with complacency and resignation the concept of a weak rupee prevailing indefinitely dblquote , Minister Choksy said, during the round up of recent economic developments presented shortly before the budget proposals.rn […]

A new tax called Economic Service Charge (ESC) of one percent over turnover or assets will come into effect next year, in an attempt to net in firms not paying government taxes.ESC will be slapped as an advance collection on the final tax payable on companies, including BOI firms, with a turnover in excess of […]

The Board of Investment will tap into the local bond market, to raise up to Rs.2 bn to fund a new Economic Trade Zone, north of Biyagama. The second Economic Trade Zone called Biyagama II is to be rolled out in Wednesdays budget, and housed on a 300-acre stretch of land. rn rnldblquote We will […]

An impending marriage between the Marxist JVP and the main opposition Peoples Alliance Party re-surfaced on Tuesday resurrecting vibes that a snap poll was imminent. The news comes on the sidelines of a crucial meeting between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe scheduled for Tuesday to end a political deadlock.rn rnThe news also […]

Sri Lankas parliament Wednesday ruled as illegal the presidents suspension of the assembly two weeks ago and said it will disregard any future attempt to disrupt the legislature. rnSpeaker Joseph Michael Perera said that President Chandrika Kumaratunga had no authority to suspend the parliament without the concurrence of the parliament, which is controlled by a […]

The much-awaited second rendezvous between the Executive and the Legislature ended on a stalemate with a committee appointed to look into their grievances.The committee is expected to spell out future working arrangements lquote under which the President and the Prime Minister can work together on national issues, a joint statement said Tuesday.rn rnTuesdays meeting between […]

The government on Monday put forward alternative suggestions to solve the lquote Southern political impasse, but declined President Chandrika Kumaratungas offer to form a national government.A French system of power sharing has been mooted to bring about a lquote Southern consensus, which will set the parameters for future peace talks.rn rnKumaratunga has been proposing a […]

The UNF government, which has been progressively clubbing the opposite camp with the peace process, is getting ready to open a second front with the budget.This time the targets include farmers and public servants; and high on the mind of Finance Minister K N Choksy, are the armed forces.rn rnldblquote Public officers and those who […]