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No more entertainment allowance for officials

No more entertainment allowance for officials

The Treasury has decided to scrap paying the ‘entertainment allowance’ given to district secretaries, additional district secretaries and divisional secretaries following numerous complaints regarding the misuse of the allowance. A district secretary is paid Rs. 15,000 monthly as an entertainment allowance while additional district secretaries and divisional secretaries are paid Rs. 10,000. The allowance is [...]

National Council proposes wide-ranging economic reforms

National Council proposes  wide-ranging economic reforms

Suggestions include increasing tax, Customs and Excise revenues; relief for banking and several other sectors President pushes ahead with  13A, but unlikely to get support of SLPP Uncertainty over local polls continues despite Supreme Court ruling   By Our Political Editor Guarded by more than 100 commandos from the Army, Police and other different services, former president [...]

Malli is missing out

My dear Basil, I thought of writing to you when I saw you in the news, saying something you have never said before. You said you were prepared to forego your citizenship in America if it allowed you to remain in active politics in Paradise. That means contesting elections and holding public office. No wonder [...]

Bouquets and brickbats for President’s policy statement after heckles and boycotts

Bouquets and brickbats for President’s policy statement after heckles and boycotts

By Sandun Jayawardana President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s call for unity on Wednesday to resolve the economic crisis was to no avail, as evidenced by the fractious two-day Parliamentary debate on his policy statement. That opposition parties were not prepared to buy his arguments was clear even before he made his second policy statement in Parliament, with [...]

Unnecessary hullabaloo over the 13th Amendment

Unnecessary hullabaloo over the 13th Amendment

President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s policy statement to Parliament last week was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding his previously expressed intention of implementing the 13th Amendment as the first step in the process of resolving what has come to be described as the ethnic conflict. Why the President was being taken to task for attempting to implement [...]

Prospects of an improvement in external finances this year

Prospects of an improvement in external finances this year

The Balance of Payments (BoP) is expected to improve this year owing to higher remittances and earn-ings from tourism. Improvement The BoP improved last year in spite of a trade deficit of US$ 5.18 billion due to increased remittances and earnings from tourism. A further improvement in the BoP is expected this year, despite a [...]

On ‘falsehoods’ and presidential popularity

On ‘falsehoods’ and presidential popularity

In truth, President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s admonition that, ‘the future cannot be built on falsehood’ this Wednesday (February 8th, 2023) as he formally opened the fourth session of the ninth Parliament, must be addressed to the political leadership (himself included), not the nation as such. Quaint Throne Speeches and Presidential promises In fact, the temptation is [...]

Why must Lankans celebrate an Independence Day at all?

Why must Lankans celebrate an Independence Day at all?

Why not declare February 4th ‘Celebration Day’ to celebrate Lanka’s feats and glories, its resilient spirit, its multi-cultural and religious history of 2523 years   If anyone had any cause to celebrate independence from the gutter this year, it may have only been the 588 prisoners, freed on a special presidential amnesty last Saturday, who [...]

The party is over; now to sell the leftovers

The party is over; now to sell the leftovers

The guns have fallen silent. The paras have packed their chutes and gone wherever they go after jumping for joy. The mathematicians at the Presidential Secretariat have done their calculations even faster than those Treasury boys who were bleating the other day they had no money to spend for a local election. That was after [...]

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