Economic

The freshly-unveiled Budget 2021 policies are aimed at focusing on multiple aspects of the economy to drive forward growth, including capital market expansion, socioeconomic development and attract investment, a top official said yesterday, terming it as the bedrock for Sri Lanka’s next wave of economic expansion.

Lanka IOC Ltd. is nearing the completion of work on Sri Lanka’s first grease manufacturing plant in Trincomalee, a move which will help save valuable foreign exchange as at present the requirement is met entirely via imports.

In an attempt to return Colombo Port operations to normal, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) is in the midst of setting up an improved contingency plan and has offered all perks to draw retired crane operators to offset a spree of staff shortages caused by COVID-19.

Treasury Secretary S.R. Attygalle yesterday said that the upcoming special single Goods and Services Tax (GST) which is one of the major proposals in 2021 Budget will be either revenue neutral or positive as the rate will be determined prior to its implementation from January.

Customs has announced new measures to improve facilitation benefitting its users with quicker clearance of shipments and reduced cost.

Reuters: Shares posted losses for a second straight session on Friday, weighed by industrials and communication services stocks.

The 2021 Budget unveiled yesterday listed key reforms in the financial services sector including much-needed consolidation within finance companies and revamp supervision of non-bank financial institutions.

The emergence of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in October has impacted the performance of exports, which saw strong momentum since June.

Money Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal told Parliament yesterday.

Via the 2021 Budget presented yesterday, the Government announced several tax relief measures to facilitate post-COVID-19 recovery, especially targeting SMEs.

The Government's latest issue of Sri Lanka Development Bonds (SLDBs) worth $ 75 million concluded undersubscribed by over 60% last week.

Despite the drastic economic downturn, Sampath Bank said it has recorded a profit before tax (PBT) of Rs. 6.99 billion and a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs. 5.09 billion for the nine months ended 30 September 2020, reflecting a decline of 33.1% and 22% respectively from a year earlier.

Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday urged businessmen to bring back their allegedly “hidden money”.

Recommends BOI enterprises provide dedicated boarding houses for employees given likelihood of longer term prevalence of COVID-19

Gains from government securities, foreign exchange (FX) swap trading and FX trading activities have enabled the Commercial Bank of Ceylon Group (ComBank) to mitigate to some extent, the severity of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on profits in a period of reduced interest income and substantially higher impairment provisioning, compared to the corresponding quarter of the last year.

Central Bank (CB) said yesterday it raised $ 62 million afresh via Sri Lanka Development Bonds (SLDBs) on top of $ 24.8 million last week.

වාහන ආනයනය කිරීමේ තහනම තවත් වසරක කාලයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශය තීරණය කර ඇත.

The Colombo Stock Market showed resilience yesterday with both indices finishing on the up after a rocky day, with profit taking and turnover crossing the now standard Rs. 3 billion mark.