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තමන්ගේ ප්‍රචාරණ ව්‍යාපාරයට සම්බන්ධව වොක්ෂෝල් වීදියේ ප්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයට අනුයුක්තව සේවය කළ ඉන්දියානුවන් පිරිසක් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා විසින් පසුගිය සතියේදී සේවයෙන් ඉවත් කර ඇති අතර අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා වහාම ඔවුන්ව යළි සේවයට බඳවාගෙන ඇති බව ආරංචිමාර්ග සඳහන් කරයි.

ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ අත්තනගල්ල ආසනයේ ප‍්‍රධාන සංවිධායිකාව ලෙස කටයුතු කරනු ලබන හිටපු ජනාධිපතිනි චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක කුමාරතුංග මහත්මිය වෙනුවට එහි වැඩ බැලීම සඳහා ගම්පහ දිස්ති‍්‍රක් නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර ලසන්ත අලගියවන්න මහතා පත් කර ඇත.

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) presidential aspirant Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Sri Lanka Sahakampana Organisation and Joint Front for differently-abled people and pledged, if elected, to uphold their right to equality and inclusion.

Six presidential hopefuls participate in ICC-Daily FT-CIMA Fireside Chat
Tax concessions for private sector, corruption and de-politicisation among topics discussed
SP pledges free enterprise
GR says SL needs non-politician to create turnaround
AKD focuses on minimising wastage, corruption
Dr. Rohan Pallewatta confident of breaking economic deadlock
Dr. Ajantha Perera calls for focus beyond party politics

Tax concessions for the private sector, a more technocratic approach to administration and depoliticising policymaking were among the pledges made by six of the leading presidential candidates who came together yesterday on a common platform.

The candidates also addressed issues such as corruption, inclusive growth and increasing efficiency in the State sector.

The candidates – Sajith Premadasa, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Dr. Rohan Pallewatta, Dr. Ajantha Perera and Dr. Gamini Nanda Gunawardena who represented Mahesh Senanayake - participated in the third edition of the popular Fireside Chat series held under the title ‘What Lies Ahead: With the Leading Presidential Candidates’ at the Galle Face Hotel yesterday. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was not present but sent a voice message which was played at the event.

The event was hosted by the International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ICC Sri Lanka) together with Daily FT and CIMA. All proceeds collected at the event will be donated to Apeksha Hospital.

New Democratic Front (NDF) candidate Premadasa said his economic policies would encourage free enterprise and measures to avoid unnecessary obstacles to the country’s wealth-creating mechanism and foster an environment in which small, medium and big businesses could grow.

“We are trying to empower the private sector with adequate fiscal and monetary support. This balance is essential if one is to stabilise the economy and encourage growth. Fiscal growth provides businesses and private entrepreneurs with a conducive environment with tax breaks, reduction of the tax burden and simplified tax structures,” Premadasa said.

He added that the famous dictum that higher taxes led to a decline in entrepreneurship, which in turn led to lesser economic growth, was an accepted fact.

He said it was important to reduce the tax burden on small, medium and big wealth-generating businesses and free them up to be smart and innovative while the monetary policy had to be balanced with the proper management of interest rates.

“There must be concerted efforts to give adequate interest rate relief so that access to credit will benefit entrepreneurs, giving them the opportunity to obtain credit so they become active participants and stakeholders in a wealth-creating mechanism,” he said.

National People’s Power (NPP) candidate Dissanayaka said that his economic policies would primarily focus on minimising waste and corruption as well as simplifying the tax structure while adding at least 100,000 new tax files to the existing 170,000 files within five years.

Dissanayaka also said there had to be a partnership between the state and private sector for the country to develop, which means freeing the private sector from the shackles of political interference and favouritism.

“If the private sector wants to invest in a project today, they have to go behind a politician to get approvals. Today most businesses get projects depending on their connections to politicians but we will completely put a stop to that and ensure that the private sector can do business in a legal manner,” Dissanayaka said.

He also promised a consistent tax structure which did not change with each Budget.

“There must be at least five years of a consistent tax framework and we have to simply the tax structure,” he said.

Businessman Pallewatta, who is contesting from the Jathika Sangwardhena Peramuna, said that he placed his bets on Sri Lanka’s economic growth due to the uniqueness of Sri Lankans.

“When I started my business of producing impact sensors for airbags, I was told it was impossible for Sri Lankans to do this but I realised by providing the right leadership it could be done. It is this confidence I am trying to instill in the minds of Sri Lankans,” he said.

Pallewatta also said Sri Lanka could break the economic deadlock it was in by getting at least $ 10 billion as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in a short period of 12 months.

“Many people will say this is impossible but you can do it. For that you have to understand the psyche of the investor; what triggers their mind when they decide to make an investment and you can convince them to invest in Sri Lanka,” he added.

Dr. Perera of the Socialist Party of Sri Lanka said that one reason for the economy stagnating was that elected presidents did not give up their political affiliation but worked to strengthen it instead of concentrating on development.

All parties in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) have decided to support New Democratic Front Presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ සමඟ සන්ධානගත වීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ මන්ත්‍රී කණ්ඩායම ගත් තීරණයට එරෙහිව විකල්ප ශ්‍රීලනිප කණ්ඩායමක් වශයෙන් විශේෂ සමුළුවක් පැවැත්වීම පිළිබඳව හිටපු ජනාධිපතිනී චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක මහත්මියට එරෙහිව පියවරක් ගැනීම ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් පසුවට කල් තැබීමට ඊයේ (05) පැවති ශ්‍රීලනිප මධ්‍යම කාරක සභා රැස්වීමේදී තීරණය කර තිබේ.

මෙවර ජනාධිපතිවරණයේ දී සුළු ජාතීන්ගේ ඡන්ද 90%ක් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාට ලැබෙන බව අමාත්‍ය රිෂාඩ් බදියුදීන් මහතා පවසයි.

යහපාලන සංකල්පය ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට උචිත වන නමුත් එය හඳුන්වා දුන් වේගය ඉක්මන් වැඩි යැයි හිටපු යුද හමුදාපති ෆීල්ඩ් මාර්ෂල් සරත් ෆොන්සේකා මහතා පවසයි. පසුගිය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පාලනයට සම්බන්ධ නිලධාරීන් හා බලධාරීන් අදාළ ආයතනවල ඉහළ තනතුරු දරමින් සිටීම නිසා යහපාලනය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට ඔවුන් බාධාවක් වූ බවයි ෆොන්සේකා මහතා සඳහන් කරන්නේ.

ගොවි ජනතාවගේ නිෂ්පාදන ආරක්ෂා කරගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් නව වැඩපිළිවළක් ආරම්භ කරන බව ජනාධිපති ධූර අපේක්ෂක අමාත්‍ය සජිත් පේ‍්‍රමදාස පවසනවා. ඔහු මෙම අදහස් පළකළේ හඟුරන්තෙක පැවැති ජනරැළියක් අමතමින්.

තමා නැවත කිසිදු දිනෙක එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයට සම්බන්ධ නොවන බව රාජ්‍ය ආමත්‍ය වසන්ත සේනානායක මහතා පවසනවා. අද (07) කොළඹදී මාධ්‍ය හමුවක් පවත්වමින් අමාත්‍යවරයා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේය.

Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday alleged that New Democratic Front (DNF) presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa was attempting to mislead the public into thinking that he was backing a unitary state even though his manifesto used the term ‘undivided and indivisible State’, which was also proposed during the initial discussions previously held by the Government over a new Constitution.

ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව පොහොසත් රටක් බවට පත් කිරීමට සැලසුමක් ඇති බව ජනාධිපති ධූර අපේක්ෂක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක පවසනවා.

New Democratic Front (NDF) Presidential Candidate Sajith Premadasa said once voted into office he would appoint a new Prime Minister, who he felt, could command a majority in Parliament.

A shooting incident had taken place involving the security of former Minister S.B Dissanayake in Ginigathhena, Polpitiya late last evening.

නොවැම්බර් 16 වැනිදා පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ජයග්‍රහණය කළහොත් ඊට පසුදිනම එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් හතළිහක් පමණ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට සහය ලබා දීමට සූදානම්ව සිටින බව තමා ඉතා වගකීමෙන් ප්‍රකාශ කරන බව ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී බිමල් රත්නායක මහතා මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

එදා ලෝකයේ පළමු තැනට තිබූ සිලෝන් ටී නාමය වත්මන් රජයෙ යටතේ කසළ තේ කවලම් කර අපනයනය කිරීම නිසා සිව් වැනි තැනට වැටී ඇතැයි ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ පැවසීය.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) yesterday wrote to the Election Commission objecting to a move by the President’s Office to appoint new President’s Counsels prior to the end of the term of the current President, requesting the Commission to intervene and suspend the process until the upcoming Presidential Election had ended.

“Over 70 per cent of population in the country are living in rural areas and a special programme will be in place under my directive to uplift the living standards of the rural population,” SLPP Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa told an election rally near Kandy yesterday.Addressing an election rally in Ududumbara, Rajapaksa also said he will formulate a relief package to relieve the people’s burden of living costs soon after he comes to power.