Many ‘desperate’ residents in the Colombo district and the immediate suburbs are prepared to pay an extra tax to remove their garbage on time and from their doorstep, a survey by The Sunday Times FT on the garbage crisis shows.More than 65 percent agreed to the payment of an extra tax if this would solve their garbage problem. The survey covered a cross section of office workers, students, academics, professionals, businessmen, housewives, etc. It reflected how desperate and angry residents are with their local council over garbage collection.

Hemas Holdings Ltd (HHL), which sold off its 25 percent stake in eChannelling last week, is negotiating with some new investors for its Wattala Hospital project and hoping to finalise it this month, the company CEO said. “We are in the process of finalising some people for investing in the Wattala Hospital and carrying out a few discussions with them,” Hussein Esufally, CEO HHL told The Sunday Times FT adding that the new investor will have a limited stake.

The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) will be importing its entire crude requirements for the next seven months from Iran under a new credit line facility but this is unlikely to impact on prices. Chairman CPC Asantha de Mel said Iran has extended a 7-month credit facility to import the entire crude oil requirement from there. The annual oil bill is over US$1billion and the Iranian assistance will enable the corporation to purchase crude oil from Iran without paying them immediately.

The Qatar government has awarded a contract worth US$ 80 million to the State Engineering Corporation to build villas in Qatar, Construction and Engineering Services Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne said.