SEC – Hunt on for new DG
Now with a brand new chairman at its helm, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ‘restarted’ its hunt for a new Director General, SEC officials say. “There are a few names being discussed,” a SEC source told the Business Times, adding that someone who previously held this post may take it up for the second time.
A new set of Commissioners together with a new Director General will be appointed this week, he added.
The new Chairman, Thilak Karunaratne, while not letting in on who the new SEC Director General will be, told the Business Times that he will have a ‘chat’ with the departments individually this week.
On assuming duties, Mr. Karunaratne had ‘stressed’ to the staff on being ‘absolutely’ loyal to the organization.
“There should not be any divided loyalties. The SEC staff should be faithful to the organization and not to the outside world,” he had said, sending a strong signal to the alleged insiders’ disseminating sensitive information to the outside world.
When Deputy Director General Dhammika Perera in his welcome speech had referred to Mr. Karunaratne as a ‘successful’ businessman, the former had interjected and stressed that he is an ‘honest’ and a successful businessman, eliciting smiles from those preent.
The Colombo bourse fell sharply in Friday’s early trading session, on the back of the mini budget which saw many increased taxes.
The new fiscal plan for the year had many surprises while also accommodating the expected relief proposals as mentioned in the newgovernment’s election manifesto. At the outset, especially for the investors in the equity market this revised budget is nothing short of a shocker with increased taxes and additional levies on alcohol manufacturers and telecos, brokers said.
Analysts said that the introduction of the one off tax of 25 per cent on corporates and individuals who earned a profit of over Rs 2 billion for this financial year would have a significant impact on FY15E profitability of such company shares.