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Home » ColumnsPresident to address NAM summit and UNGA next month
President Maithripala Sirisena will be packing his bags next month to fly to two major talk-fests: The Non-Aligned (NAM) Summit in Caracas, Venezuela and the annual United Nations General Assembly sessions in New York. After participating in the 17th NAM summit on September 17 and 18, he will be heading to the UN where on September [...]
Huge projects on launch pad, but Govt. stuck in VAT trap for daily revenue
Agreement with Chinese company for international financial centre while Japan offers to build Monorail and Light Rail Transport Costly mistake results in Supreme Court throwing out VAT Bill, acute embarrassment for UNP By Our Political Editor The Government’s controversial Value Added Tax (VAT) increase was mired in a further controversy this week. The Supreme Court determined [...]
Taking Basil’s side against all odds
My dear SB, I thought I must write to you because you are in the news again – this time, saying that you saw nothing wrong in what Basil had done during the elections when he allegedly bought some pipes with his ministry’s money and distributed them for election work. SB, I do admire your [...]
Advice from Economic Forum: Pouring water on a duck’s back
The two day Economic Summit organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce brought out a forthright critique of current economic policies. The overall message was that fundamental weaknesses in the economy that included the lack of consistent economic policies, the need for a taxation system that ensures adequate revenue to reduce the fiscal deficit, appropriate [...]
Let us start investing in Tree Banks again!
Once Chennai was like a desert city. Today it is a beautiful city full of trees. The beach was dirty. Today it is clean, well swept daily and full of tourists. We have many a story such as ‘Andare the Court Jester’ and even the ‘Alibaba and Forty thieves’ but the message is clear, we [...]
A shameful rejection of a collective ‘mea culpa’
The raucous commotion in Parliament this week with the passing of the Office of Missing Persons Bill without a vote is reflective of our utterly degenerate political culture. Even now, there is no clear idea of the numbers mustered on the floor to ensure the passage of this enormously significant legislation. No politician can profess [...]
OMP Bill bypasses JO lost in its own floor show
By Chandani Kirinde- Lobby Correspondent Thus far, members of the Joint Opposition (JO) group have managed to grab more than their fair share of attention, mainly due to their boisterous behaviour within Parliament, than for their role in enriching the legislative business. However, this week they got bogged down in a situation they themselves created [...]
Democrazy Live in Lanka!
One year of all that jazz, but corruption still tops the charts This Wednesday will mark the first milestone of the general elections that gave birth to Lanka’s 15th Parliament. Since the election result did not produce a clear winner, it led to the creation of a two face government made up of the two [...]
VAT is the cause of their discontent
What on earth is going on in this miracle of Asia? From the day the Finance Minister and other UNP whiz-kids in the cabinet tried to increase the Value- Added Tax from 11 per cent to 15 per cent, the exercise seemed jinxed. Not too long ago Ravi Karunanayake tried to up the VAT by [...]