State

The report of the probe into corruption in SriLankan Airlines will be provided to Parliament and released to the public, President Maithripala Sirisena promised yesterday, confirming that he had already received the report from the investigating committee. Addressing a function at Siripura Central Maha Vidyalaya, Polonnaruva, yesterday, the President declared that he did not take the office of the President to protect certain individuals but to protect the people of the country.

President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday stood steadfastly by his push to implement the death penalty, insisting Sri Lanka as a sovereign country has the right to make that decision regardless of the concerns expressed by others.

President Maithripala Sirisena said the Cabinet approval had been granted to the project to distribute tab computers to A/L students only as a pilot project in national schools.

The Cabinet of Ministers has decided to allow the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation to replace a controversial 140-meter stretch of dilapidated fuel pipelines between Colombo Port and the CPC plants in Kolonnawa with a Treasury allocation for swift disbursement of compensation to affected families. The Cabinet proposal will enable the Urban Development Authority to re-settle affected resident local families in suitable housing schemes.

Discussions are being held between the Foreign Employment Bureau, State Mortgage and Investment Bank and the People’s Bank to enhance the benefits granted to migrant workers by the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau.

දැනට පවතින නීතිමය තත්වය යටතේ මේ වසරේ සැප්තැම්බර් මාසයේදී පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය පැවැත්වීමට කිසිදු ඉඩක් නැතැයි අග‍්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ ප‍්‍රකාශ කරයි.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday that the government has carried out a number of development programmes despite the Easter Sunday bomb blasts, anti-government campaign and many other challenges.

Sri Lanka Presidential Secretariat has disregarded financial rules and regulations in carrying out its day to day administration and its key performance indicators are far below the expectations, Public Accounts Committee, determined.

The National Integration, Official Language, Social Progress and Hindu Religious Affairs Ministry will hold a number of programmes to mark the Official Languages Day which falls today (July 1).

චීනයෙන් දුම්වැටි ආනයනය කිරීම නතර කිරීමට අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය අද (02) දින තීරණය කළ බව සෞඛ්‍ය, පෝෂණ හා දේශීය වෛද්‍ය අමාත්‍ය දොස්තර රාජිත සේනාරත්න මහතා පවසයි.

Sri Lanka is making tax evasion a serious offence liable for imprisonment and heavy fines extending the range of civil penalties for taxpayers who avoid paying taxes.

The Inland Revenue Act (IRA) enacted in Parliament last year, stipulated heavy punishment for those convicted of tax evasion, Finance Ministry sources revealed adding that the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has been directed to prosecute such offenders without delay.

The IRD also announced recently that any informant providing information on tax evaders to the department will be offered a reward of 10 per cent of the additional surcharge and total fine recovered from the defaulter.

According to the new Act, a fine of Rs. 10 million and /or imprisonment for up to two years, compared to the previous punishment of six months shall be imposed for tax evaders if found guilty of charges by a court of law, a senior Ministry official said.

A person who fails to comply with a request for information properly made under this Act, within the specified time, shall be liable for a penalty of an amount not exceeding Rs.1 million.

Before assessing a penalty for this offence, the IRD Commissioner-General shall issue a notice of warning, and no penalty shall be due under this section where the taxpayer complies with the warning notice within 30 days of service of the notice.

Expressing surprise on this provision in the IRA, an eminent tax expert told the Business Times that a taxpayer paying a tax of Rs. 10,000 annually may be ordered to pay a penalty of Rs. 1 million for not furnishing some information.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said that the UNP could not support the move to implement capital punishment in Sri Lanka as it was against the party’s policies.

National Carrier Sri Lankan Airlines (SLA) currently in the process of restructuring on the directions of Presidential expert committee is nose-diving with no escape in sight.

ඉදිරියේදී රට තුළ ඇතිවිය හැකි බලශක්ති අර්බුදයට ස්ථිරසාර විසදුම සූර්ය බලශක්තිය ප්‍රවර්ධනය කිරීම බව, විදුලිබල, බලශක්ති සහ ව්‍යාපාර සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍ය රවී කරුණානායක අවධාරණය කරයි.

The island-wide National Drug Prevention Week under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena coinciding with the ‘International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking’ saw the completion of its final day successfully yesterday.

Attorney General Dappula de Livera PC has directed Acting IGP Chandana Wickremeratne to name IGP Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando as suspects and arrest and produce them in court for their failure to prevent or minimize the Easter Sunday attacks.

චින සිගරට් ලංකාවට ගෙන ආවොත් කිසි විටෙකත් එවැනි රජයක තමාට හෝ ජනාධිපතිවරයාට සිටිය නොහැකි බව සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය රාජිත සේනාරත්න මහතා පවසයි.

The salary increment and other allowances for public servants proposed by Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera in his budget 2019 is effective from today (July 01). Accordingly, all public servants will receive an additional monthly allowance of Rs 2500.00,allowance for security forces will be increased, anomalies of 500,000 pensioners will be removed, allowance for the differently abled will be increased and the number of recipients of Kidney patients’ allowance will be increased. The Government has allocated a total sum of Rs.40, 000 million for this purpose.