BT-RCB Poll: Consumers unhappy with food testing process
A BT-RCB poll this week on food and consumer rights shows that consumers are generally unhappy with the level of quality testing of local and imported food. Consumers said there was no use complaining about food issues as officials were either not responsive or it was time consuming. “Much of today’s food is full of [...]
Lankan tests for all imported milk powder
The Sri Lankan Government, despite strong assurances from New Zealand over the safety of its milk, has ordered tests of all imported milk powder with immediate effect to ascertain whether it contains Dicyandiamide (DCD) – even in minute quantities. This is also apart from the World Health Organisation informing the Health Ministry in a report [...]
Dhammika Perera seen reducing stake in Lanka Ceramic
Anthony Page, Chairman Lanka Ceramic PLC is expected to buy 30 per cent in this company from businessman Dhammika Perera who would still hold a 51 per cent stake, officials close to Mr. Perera said. A consortium of investors led by Mr. Perera’s Royal Ceramics bought over 24 million shares or 80 per cent of [...]
No more car park fees at malls, hotels, supermarkets?
Hotels, supermarkets and mega shopping malls in Colombo and the suburbs may have to stop charging parking fees in future under new guidelines by the Western Provincial Council (WPC). WPC Chief Minister Prasanna Ranatunge said this would also apply to commercial establishments in Colombo and Gampaha district following the unanimous passage of a private members [...]
J.L Morison to continue as independent brand, Hemas says
New owners of J.L. Morison Son & Jones (Ceylon) PLC (JLM), Hemas Holdings PLC said the company will continue as an independent brand and have no plans to amalgamate it with other Hemas brands. The acquisition will further strengthen the generic pharmaceutical manufacturing operation at JLM, officials said. Hemas Manufacturing, a unit of the Hemas [...]
SL mulls discontinuing private sector-generated power deals
The government is considering discontinuing the purchase of privately-generated power or reducing the purchasing price aimed at cutting current power tariffs by at least 75 per cent through renegotiation of Independent Power Purchase (IPP) contracts, a top official said. Power and Energy Ministry Secretary M. M. C. Ferdinando told the Business Times that the Ceylon [...]
South Asians including Sri Lankans rely heavily on informal money transfers
Sri Lanka, out of seven countries surveyed, has seen the highest amount of remittances through informal means in 2012 followed by Indonesia. According to a Gallup study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, nearly 800 million South Asians and Indonesians, equal to 60 per cent of the adult population in the South Asian [...]
Fundamental issues over consumer rights
A survey this week undertaken jointly by the Business Times (BT) and the Colombo-based Research Consultancy Bureau (RCB) relating to the recent furore over contamination in milk foods has raised some interesting issues. With over a 1000 people responding to the poll; conducted on the street, via mobile phone and on email; the results showed [...]
Ranasinghe Premadasa – the man who disciplined Sri Lanka’s Customs
Ranasinghe Premadasa was elected President in 1988 at a time when the country was in flames by the bloody revolt by the LTTE in north and east and the JVP in other areas of the country. While all these civil wars were continuing he had a vision to increase the government tax revenue to meet [...]
Sri Lanka among top 10 countries in credit card fraud
Often the biggest problem in countries like Sri Lanka when determining the root vulnerability exploited by hackers is that the data stored in associated files is not properly recorded following an intrusion, according to cyber security specialist Sujit Cristy, a Director at Layers – 7 Seguro Consultoria, who has worked in Singapore, India and other [...]
BizEx Consulting to conduct seminars on productivity and management techniques
BizEx Consulting, a newly formed consultancy company, promoting business excellence, is to conduct several seminars on productivity techniques and Japanese management techniques. The company said the first two seminars will be on June 20 and 21 at the Postgraduate Institute of Management conducted by business professional Sunil G. Wijesinha who is qualified in productivity and [...]
CEB plant costs full of distortions, expert says
The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) power plant costs are full of distortions and this is a bitter indictment on the whole issue of electricity supply in Sri Lanka, according to Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya, a top Sri Lankan authority on the power and energy sector. He was making a presentation on ‘Electricity Industry, Costs and Prices’ [...]
Nepal’s top businessman plans to partner local bank to raise venture capital
The Chaudhary Group (CG), led by Nepal’s first billionaire and business tycoon Binod Chaudhary, is looking at partnering with a local bank and possibilities of raising venture capital to attract investors to Sri Lanka. Mr. Chaudhary, on the sidelines of a briefing with senior business writers on Monday, told the Business Times that he is [...]
Browns’ MD Murali resigning, company says
Browns Group Managing Director/CEO Murali Prakash is resigning from the company with Ishara Nanayakkara taking over as the top official, the company said on Wednesday. The Business Times last week exclusively reported this development quoting Mr. Prakash as saying he was quitting due to some personal commitments in Australia from August onwards. In a filing [...]
First Capital signs deal to buy DNH stock brokers
First Capital Holdings, a subsidiary of Dunamis Capital, has inked the deal to acquire 100 per cent of stock broking firm DNH Financial Ltd, owned from Environmental Resources Investment, for Rs. 180 million, First Capital CEO – Jehaan Ismail, said. Dunamis Capital is owned by the Schafter family – the main stakeholder of the Janashakthi [...]
Distilleries’ strategy of top end, flavoured arrack could trigger imitations by other players :Analysts
Distilleries has started producing higher end flavoured arracks which provides some differentiation for their local products, but they are subject to fleeting trends and can also be imitated by the existing smaller players, a John Keells Stock Brokers (Pvt) Ltd research report says. The last few years have seen a continuous increase in excise tax [...]
Delicate art of Needle-craft in the hills of Kandy
The history of this country and the ancient monuments that are left behind or which now remains shows that the craftsmanship, art, sculpture, stone carving, architecture, pottery, designing and many other such activities had been glorious during the time of ancient kings in Sri Lanka. This is evident even during the medieval times and the [...]
PIM workshop on research issues
The PIM Research Centre, the research arm of Sri Lanka’s Post Graduate Institute of Management (PIM), conducted a workshop last week for those who wished to complete the literature review and conceptualisation, as well as develop skills to structure journal articles and develop their Ph.D. thesis. According to a PIM media release, Prof. Uditha Liyanage, [...]
Taprobane Wealth manages debenture issue of Senkadagala Finance
Taprobane Wealth Plus (Pvt) Ltd, the corporate finance arm of the Taprobane Holdings group, says it successfully managed the recent Senkadagala Finance’s Rs.500 million senior, listed, rated, unsecured, redeemable debenture issue, which carried an option to increase the funds raised up to Rs.1 billion. In a media release, Taprobane Wealth Plus, specialists in corporate bond [...]
Outrageous electricity tariff
By now all electricity consumers, poor and almost poor middle class, must have cut down their power consumption to a bare minimum. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) should realise it is the poor citizen that helps to keep the CEB going with their hard earned money and not the [...]
Sri Lankans’ views mixed on issues relating to local and imported food
Sri Lankans are mixed in their views on whether testing of local and imported food, as required by the country’s authorities, is properly done, a joint poll by the Business Times (BT) and Colombo-based Research and Consultancy Bureau (RCB) revealed this week. Following the controversy over imported milk food, the poll sought to find answers [...]
CAA to be firm on proper food product labelling
Sri Lanka’s food and beverage companies have been ordered to clearly display ingredients of their products in bold letters enabling consumers to take a decision before buying food items, officials said. The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) has already issued a circular to these companies giving guidelines on labelling as some of these firms have failed [...]
Fonterra says prepared for any re-test of its milk products
Fonterra Sri Lanka said this week that it was open to any independent re-test or investigation of its milk products. “.. We are confident – with the right process – (that) this will lead to the same conclusion all other Governments around the world have already reached: that our products are safe,” said Leon Clement, [...]
Practising philanthropy in the pursuit of CSR
Sri Lankan companies mistake philanthropy for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in their work with local communities and the environment, says a US-based expert. “There are major differences between philanthropy and CSR and many organisations and individuals here (and in many parts of the world) are not clear about either,” noted Colleen Fletcher, who has had [...]
Corporate Social Responsibility-Is it just a fancy catchphrase?
Recently I received an email from a HR manager from a large organization about what he termed as ‘hypocrisy attached to CSR’. Even though this may not be common to all organizations, his problem statement was clear: ‘Business tycoons talk of CSR. Some of them use this word to build up their image and achieve [...]
New cost effective bleaching agent for Sri Lankan sole crepe and crepe manufacture
A new brand of Latex Bleaching Agent for sole Crepe and crepe manufacture was launched for Sri Lanka’s plantation industry this week on June 1 called – DECOLOR CT. Though the brand is new, it is the same old chemical that had been used for the last 3-4 decades in Sri Lanka, modified by a [...]
Top IMF official to deliver keynote address at Lankan economic summit in July
Dr. Anoop Singh, Director of the Asia and Pacific Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will deliver the keynote address at the inauguration of the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2013 in July. Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Minister (Senior) International Monetary Co-operation and Deputy Minister of Finance, is also due to address the gathering as the [...]
Customs streamlines vehicle valuation system
The Sri Lanka Customs has streamlined the vehicle valuation system in collaboration with the Vehicle Importers Association of Lanka (VIAL) for the benefit of hundreds of vehicle importers and buyers in the country, officials said. The on line valuation system will simplify vehicle valuing, taxing and clearing process and prevent undervaluation of imported vehicles and [...]
Mobitel 4G-LTE network in Colombo, outside
Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel today went live with its 4G-LTE service in the cities of Colombo, Hambantota, Matara, Galle, Kalutara, Kandy and Jaffna. The trial of Mobitel’s 4G-LTE network in May 2011 exhibited downlink speeds exceeding 96Mbps, which was also incidentally the first time in the South Asian Region, the company said in a statement. [...]
Laugfs Gas announces record financial year performance
Laugfs Gas PLC and its subsidiaries said according to its un-audited financial statements for the year ending 31st March 2013, revenue had crossed Rs.10 billion mark, reaching Rs.10.6 billion. “It is a landmark for the group of companies in its comparatively short history of business operations. It has achieved this feat, despite the many unprecedented [...]
Nepali business mogul interested in city hotel
Binod Chaudhary, Nepal’s first billionaire and whose main interest in Sri Lanka is in tourism, is keen on acquiring a a city hotel in addition to other leisure sector investments he has. He said that his investments in the Sri Lankan leisure sector are estimated at US$200 million. “My affair with Sri Lanka started 17 [...]
LSR invests Rs.700 mln in Pasikudah
Lanka Sports Reizen (LSR) has invested approximately Rs.700 million in two new properties in Pasikudah and renovated another property in Bentota at a cost of approximately Rs.1 million. Currently, the biggest interest for LSR is in Pasikudah with its two new properties on six acres of land. The company has already gained necessary approvals for [...]
JKH reports Rs.15.78 bln in pre-tax profit for fiscal 2012/13
John Keells Holdings (JKH), the Colombo conglomerate, on Tuesday said its group pre-tax profit for the year ending March 31, 2013 was Rs.15.78 billion, up 23 per cent from the previous year. The company said more details of its financial, environmental and social performance will be provided in the annual report to be released next [...]
SupremeSAT signs US$ 215 million contract in China to launch “supremesat-2″
Sri Lanka’s ambitious aim to launch its fully owned satellite in 2016 becomes a reality with the signing of the ‘In Orbit Delivery Contract” for “SupremeSAT-2″between the SupremeSAT and China Great Wall Industry Corporation, top official of the company said. SupremeSAT’s chairman .R.M. Manivannan said in a statement that this US$215 million contract was signed [...]
