Under fire from rapidly increasing prices, the President and Prime Minister plan to cut costs on essential goods through a combination of efforts including appointing a special ministerial committee, gazetting fresh price controls on 10 foods and deploying 1,500 officials to enforce controls countrywide.

Sri Lanka’s government plans to set up a special court by next year to hear allegations of abuses during the country’s decades-long civil war, the foreign minister said Wednesday.

President Maithripala Sirisena said the period of fasting practiced in Islam could be described as a noble quality of self-sacrifice.

Ramazan brings a message of peaceful co-existence, sharing and harmony to all, said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesighe.

The Sri Lankan rupee ended weaker in one-week forwards on Tuesday as late importer dollar demand surpassed greenback sales by a foreign bank, while the market waited for a policy statement from the new central bank governor, dealers said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says that a decision was reached that the citizens of Sri Lanka should be involved in the country’s economy and decision making process by implementing a transparent tax scheme instead of a hidden tax agenda.

President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday promised that an uncomplicated decision will be taken on the VAT system following further talks with all stakeholders.

India and Sri Lanka yesterday agreed to start negotiations on fast-track basis for the proposed Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) and conclude the talks before end of the year.

Five fishermen from Rameswaram were arrested by Sri Lanka naval personnel on charges of fishing in their territorial waters on Sunday, prompting Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps for their release.

Against the backdrop of mounting public unrest against the recent hike of Value Added Tax (VAT), President Maitripala Sirisena has called for a meeting with the officials of Inland Revenue Department today for a discussion on the possibility of revising it, it is learnt.

A 48-year-old individual was shot dead by an unidentified gunman at Nawarahena Junction, Dickwella early this morning.

Former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, whose tenure was plagued by scandal and controversy, went home (Singapore) on Friday afternoon on Emirates 348.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy as the Governor of Central Bank, President’s Media Division announced.

Sri Lankan nationals are suspected to be among several foreigners taken hostage after gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with expatriates in the diplomatic quarter of the Bangladeshi capital on Friday.

Sri Lanka will have no central bank chief for a few days, the government said on Friday, an unprecedented leadership vacuum that fuels concern about daily operations after the previous governor declined to seek reappointment.

Lieutenant Yoshitha Rajapaksa was under investigation for financial crimes and therefore other allegations allegedly done as a Naval Officer would be investigated by the Sri Lanka Navy