Eye on the budget
A puzzled consumer looks at a poster of discounted prices in Colombo wondering whether the 2023 Budget to be presented tomorrow would also provide some relief to the people. Pic by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
Fuel, tobacco and cigarettes taxes up in Budget 2023
Sri Lanka’s Budget 2023 will be unveiled by President and Finance Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Parliament tomorrow with measures to increase taxes on fuel, tobacco and alcohol to boost revenue while reviving an old cost of living allowance for public and private sector workers to cushion rising living costs. Increasing tobacco and alcohol taxation will [...]
Bodyline ventures into new brands, more capacity
Apparel industry’s 30-year old Bodyline venture is today looking at increasing capacity in India and diversifying into new brands, having grown with resilience with its partners MAS and Victoria’s Secret. Bodyline CEO Dinesh De Silva speaking with the Business Times on Bodyline’s 30th anniversary scheduled for November 16 stated that they will be expanding capacity [...]
Nearly 60% power price hike next year?
Officials in the energy industry were informed of a proposal by authorities recently, during a conference, of a move to increase electricity tariffs by nearly 60 per cent next year. Industry stakeholders who attended the Energy Roundtable Conference recently told the Business Times that there was a proposal by certain officials to increase electricity tariff [...]
OQ Trading ousts Siam Gas in latest LP tender
In the wake of the recent unexpected 12.5 kg LP gas price hike by Rs. 80, Litro Gas Lanka Ltd is set to award the latest one year term tender of 280,000 metric tonnes of LP gas to Oman Company, OQ Trading in accordance with the endorsement of the Standing Cabinet appointed Procurement Committee. Only [...]
Qatari investor loses $3 m investment in Sri Lanka energy firm
A reputed Qatar investor has sued a Sri Lankan bio energy firm and its sole owner and Managing Director for allegedly defrauding US$ 3 million of his investment. Efforts by Qatar embassy officials to intervene in the issue and settle it have not succeeded. The Western Province Colombo High Court will open the hearing of [...]
Midnight gazettes
Budgets…budgets…budgets! Are people interested in budgets anymore apart from businesses looking for incentives and tax revisions or worried about rising taxes? Since 1970, more than 50 budgets have been presented annually and it was Dr. N.M. Perera, then Finance Minister (in the 1970s) who broke tradition by introducing the dreaded ‘midnight’ gazettes that announced tax [...]
Money is someone’s debt
A man who was walking ahead of me suddenly stopped and stooped down eagerly to see something at his feet. He was a few metres ahead of me – we were both walking along the same street in Amsterdam city. Although he stooped down to pick up something, he didn’t take whatever it was. Then, [...]
Coconut production to drop owing to high fertiliser costs
Coconut production is set to come down by at least 20 per cent this year, gradually go down further and drop by another 30 per cent in three years as a result of the current bad trends of inadequate fertiliser and the spread of a killer leaf disease. Emeritus Prof. Deepal Matthew, Executive Committee Member [...]
Sri Lanka’s roadmap for economic stabilisation unveils soon
Sri Lanka’s roadmap with guidelines and work plan along with a new development strategy for short medium and long term periods to achieve economic stabilisation and recovery from the present fiscal crisis is to be unveiled in the coming weeks. A group of top government officials and senior economic consultants is working on developing the [...]
Everbolt Engineering ISO 9001: 2015 certification
Everbolt Engineering (Pvt) Ltd, the nation’s premier engineering solutions provider, recently obtained ISO 9001:2015 certification for sales and marketing of industrial electrical equipment with related engineering solutions. This internationally recognised standard for quality management system helps the organisation to form a solid consistent base for sector standards enhancing customers’ confidence right through the supply chain [...]
Healthy profits from ComBank but impairment costs high
The Commercial Bank of Ceylon Group which has posted a strong operational performance in the first nine months of the current financial year, says the biggest impact on growth is provision for impairment (delayed loan repayments). Noting that the external challenges that have depressed profit and other indicators continued in the third quarter, Commercial Bank [...]
Local production can meet basic needs: Cargills
Cargills (Ceylon) PLC, announcing its consolidated financial results for the six months ended 30th September 2022, has said that local production can meet the basic needs of Sri Lanka. “We believe that local production can meet the basic food needs of Sri Lanka in the long-term with the appropriate policies to encourage investment in food [...]
AMW restructures operation, reduces locations across Sri Lanka
AMW, a wholly-owned company of Al-Futtaim, which provides some of the world’s most-recognised automotive brands, services, and mobility solutions to customers, announced this week that it has begun the process of identifying locations to close across Sri Lanka. The restructuring of AMW is in direct response to Sri Lanka’s current economic situation and the challenges [...]
Sri Lanka’s economy to shrink by 9.2 % this year
Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product (the economy) is expected to contract by 9.2 per cent in 2022 and a further 4.2 per cent in 2023, during the country’s worst economic crisis in the history, Finance Ministry latest data divulged. The economy will contract to US$ 66 billion next year (2023) from $144 billion this year [...]