State

The Colombo Light Railway project is a significant step forward to ensure that Sri Lanka is on its way to becoming a modern, twenty first century society, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.

President Maithripala Sirisena is said to have asked two of the Governors to resign from their posts.

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.

Neither the Presidential Secretariat nor the Ministry of Justice and Prison Reforms, has informed the Prisons Department with regard to implementing the death penalty as declared by President Maithripala Sirisena, a senior prison official told Daily Mirror.

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.

State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene will make a statement clarifying the Government’s position on the controversial Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) to be entered into with the United States government, Public Administration Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara said.

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.

සීනි සහිත පැණිබීම සඳහා යළි බදු පැනවීමට අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලයේ අවධානය යොමුව තිබෙනවා.

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.

A month-long special operation would be launched from July 5 to arrest drunk drivers, Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekera said.

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.

පාසල්වලට දරුවන් ඇතුළත් කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් නොකඩවා අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශය වෙත දිනපතා විශාල ඉල්ලීම් ප්‍රමාණයක් යොමු වෙනවා.

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.