November 24, 2010: The stock market has crashed, says Dr. Harsha De Silva, the United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian commenting on the budget, while Dr. Ranjith Bandara, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Foundation, says that there is no connection between the downturn of the Stock Market and the Budget. “The performance of the stock market […]

The high cost of thermal power generation would be recovered from high energy consumers, said Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka in Parliament yesterday. The minister said electricity rates should be stabilised despite fuel price hikes in the world market only through such an exercise rather than by resorting to popular short term methods. […]

‘The message to my people is that I am concentrating on development work. I want to make Sri Lanka a hub for the development of knowledge, energy, commerce, naval transportation, and aviation. To achieve that, our people must stay together, rally round the government and achieve it — for the people. To the international community, […]

Budget 2011 speech delivered by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity as Finance and Planning Minister in Parliament yesterday (November 22).

*Focus on development, productivity increase *Comprehensive tax revision *Human resource development top priority *Redress for public servants President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity as Finance and Planning Minister yesterday presented Budget 2011 in Parliament which could be best described as futuristic. The total revenue and grants envisaged in the Budget amounts to Rs 986.1 billion […]

An Employees’ Pension Fund for the benefit of all private and public sector employees who are not covered by any form of pension scheme to be set up, President said a short while ago. […]

‘I have a political solution in mind, it must be acceptable to political parties and the people’; TNA’s giving up separate state demand is ‘a very good development’; Tamil people ‘want a new leadership to be built up’; elections to Northern Provincial Council ‘by next year’; a priority is to ‘win the hearts and minds’ […]

NEW DELHI: Ahead of foreign minister S M Krishna’s visit to Sri Lanka, India has started work on construction of 1,000 homes for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the island nation. The construction of 1,000 homes is a pilot project for the commitment made by India to build 50,000 houses in northern and eastern Sri […]

The 2011 Budget will be development-oriented and will bring relief to all sectors of the society. According to a Presidential aide the budget relief will be in numerous ways. Tax reliefs, welfare measures and host of other relief measures are expected to be included in the Budget proposal to be presented by the President as […]

Our first task is to ensure lasting national unity and sustainable, permanent peace in our motherland, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the Nation after being sworn in as President for the second term yesterday morning. “I believe that the eradication of poverty is greater than the defeat of uprisings. It requires true bravery,” he added. […]

Today, we have left our mark, not only on the Sri Lankan map but also the world map. In the maritime maps of the world this will be marked as an important port, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He made this statement at the ceremonial berthing of the first vessel at ‘Magama Ruhunupura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port’, […]

The Colombo High Court today rescheduled the ‘White Flag’ case to November 23 as Former Army Chief Sarath Fonseka was not present in court due to his ailment. The lawyers representing Fonseka told court that he had suddenly taken ill as a result of the injuries he sustained after the suicide attack. The lawyer went […]

Colombo, Sri Lanka (CNN) — Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa is slated to be sworn in Thursday for a second six-year term at a nationally televised ceremony outside Colombo’s presidential secretariat overlooking the Indian Ocean. Bhutan’s Prime Minister, Jigme Thinley, who heads the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC), will be the guest of […]

CHENNAI: The issue of resettling Tamils in Sri Lanka will be raised in Sri Lankan Parliament next week, said Ranil Wickramasinghe, former Sri Lankan Prime Minister and United National Party leader, said here on Wednesday. […]

COLOMBO: External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna is scheduled to make an official visit to Sri Lanka from November 25 to 27 for bilateral talks. According to diplomatic sources, the focus of the would be rehabilitation of the nearly three lakh Tamil civilians displaced during the war between the LTTE and Sri Lankan forces and the […]

Former Army Chief Sarath Fonseka was admitted to the prison hospital at Welikada last night, Commissioner General of Prisons Major General V.R. De Silva told Ada Derana. Doctors had confirmed that Fonseka was suffering from an illness, De Silva added. […]