53,407 persons belonging to 13,520 families are facing distress due to heavy rain and flooding affecting several Districts in the island. It has been reported that two people have died while another five have been seriously injured due to the severe weather conditions in the past few days. While a total of 61 houses have […]

The mobile phone of UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera was confiscated in Parliament today after he attempted to play a speech made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa which he had recorded on his phone, during today’s Budget debate. Mr.Jayasekera who was participating in the debate had recorded a speech made by the President during an election rally […]

A Credit Agreement for USD 416 million for the construction of the Northern Railway line was signed between India and Sri Lanka at Janadipathi Mandiraya yesterday, in the presence of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and India’s External Affairs Minister S M Krishna. Exim Bank of India Managing Director Nadeem Panjetan signed the agreement for the Indian […]

Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) Convenor Udul Premaratna was further remanded till December 10th by the Colombo Magistrates’ Court today. Mr. Premaratna had been arrested and remanded for forcibly entering the Ministry of Higher Education premises and damaging government property. […]

The 2011 Budget has given many concessions in the form of tax reduction, tax removal, tax holidays etc., which would encourage the private sector to expand their activities and create confidence for investment and open up new ventures. This was stated by the Managing Director and CEO of the Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC., Mr. Kishu […]

United National Party (UNP) Colombo District MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakse told Parliament yesterday the appointment of Senior Ministers contravened the Constitution because it did not permit the creation of such posts. He said as a result the opposition would not recognize the newly created posts of senior ministers. Mr. Rajapakse said however by using his executive […]

November 25, 2010: Few soldiers have a third child, says former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka. He made these comments while leaving after the hearing of the white flag case was postponed yesterday. “The hilarious budget has stated that a grant of Rs. 100,000 would be granted to the third child of a soldier. Not one […]

The Government is to provide U.S.$ 200 Million line of credit to Maldives to overcome the foreign exchange crisis facing that country. Under this arrangement Maldivian Rufiyaa could be directly exchanged for Sri Lankan Rupees and vice versa. […]

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’ […]