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“The government is determined to make all necessary decisions for the country’s advancement and to improve the quality of life for its citizens” -President
President Anura Kumara Disanayake stated that the current government is determined to make all necessary decisions for the country’s advancement and to improve the quality of life for its citizens.
The president expressed these views during an event held on Monday (27) at the Customs Department Auditorium to mark International Customs Day under the theme, ‘Customs Delivering on its Commitment to Efficiency, Security and Prosperity.’
The Customs Co-operation Council (CCC), established in 1952 with the participation of 17 European countries is independent intergovernmental body whose mission is to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of Customs administrations. This council quickly became globally recognized, and Sri Lanka became a member in 1967. In 1994, the Customs Cooperation Council was renamed the World Customs Organization (WCO).
The first session of the Customs Cooperation Council was held on January 26, 1953, in Brussels, Belgium, marking the establishment of International Customs Day. As a result, every year on January 26, customs administration institutions across the world celebrate International Customs Day.
The President also mentioned that necessary actions are being taken to create a modern organizational structure, with structural reforms being implemented within Sri Lanka Customs, the Department of Excise, and the Department of Inland Revenue.
The President stated that laws and institutions must evolve to meet the challenges of the times and cannot remain static or permanent indefinitely.
Elaborating further, President Disanayake shared the following insights:
“Customs successfully fulfilled its responsibilities over the past year, and its efforts in stabilizing the economy are highly commendable. The achievements in meeting last year’s targets are being appropriately recognized.
However, simply achieving revenue targets is not enough to rebuild a collapsed economy. Addressing the economic crisis requires increasing the revenue-to-GDP ratio. The economic collapse has significantly disrupted the import-export market.
All of our actions are currently being carried out within the parameters set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). While surface-level indicators may suggest economic recovery, the overall economy remains deeply damaged. Therefore, it is essential to approach the recovery process cautiously and with balance. Even a small mistake can cause significant disruptions to the economy. Therefore, the Customs Department must work collectively to achieve its targeted revenue of Rs. 2,550 billion.
A proposal has been submitted to improve facilities for Customs and establish a new salary structure. Discussions are underway with the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury to provide solutions.
This year’s budget has already addressed the increase in the basic salaries of public sector employees. Additionally, plans are in place to enhance the efficiency of the public service by integrating digitalization and technology. Efforts are also being made to implement legal reforms to build strong institutional frameworks.
There were conflicts between previous political administrations and the state service mechanism. Due to these disagreements, the political leadership failed to implement the necessary reforms to strengthen institutional frameworks at the right time. It was a challenging period to establish robust institutional structures.
The failure to introduce timely institutional changes resulted in the expected outcomes not being achieved. Consequently, before we could secure many opportunities for ourselves, external parties took advantage of our resources. As a result, Sri Lanka missed several opportunities to leverage its natural strategic position as a nation.
In the future, necessary measures must be taken to facilitate operations at the Sri Lanka Port, targeting a capacity of 11.3 million containers. Achieving this will require collective effort from all employees. Without such unity, the country cannot move forward. This year, the Customs Department has been assigned a revenue target of LKR 2,550 billion.
President Anura Kumara Disanayake presented merit certificates issued by the World Customs Organization to 20 Customs officers in recognition of their outstanding contributions to special operations. Additionally, two officers were honoured with skills awards during the event.
The Director General of Customs also presented a commemorative plaque to President Anura Kumara Disanayake to mark the occasion.
The event was attended by key dignitaries, including Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Economic Development Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando, Governor of the Central Bank Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Harshana Suriyapperuma, Attorney General Parinda Ranasinghe, Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance Mahinda Siriwardena, Director General of Customs Sarath Nonis, and other officials from the Customs Department.
Donald Trump had been warning for months that a Supreme Court decision like this would be catastrophic.
If the court curtailed his ability to impose these tariffs, he had said, it would be an “economic and national security disaster”.
A six-justice majority of the Supreme Court, in ruling against the president on Friday, didn’t care much about his concerns.
Congress, not the president, has the power to impose tariffs, the justices ruled. And nothing in the law that the president based his tariffs on, the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, delegated such sweeping powers to Trump.
The court’s decision represents a rare check on this president’s broad use of executive authority.
A majority of the justices over the past year have shown a willingness to allow Trump to press ahead with his agenda, particularly on immigration and reshaping the federal government, even as legal challenges work their way through the court system.
This case, which was fast-tracked through the court system as an emergency, slams the door on one such expansive use of presidential authority.
With several other major cases involving controversial uses of executive power, such as efforts to end birthright citizenship and to dismiss a Federal Reserve governor based on alleged improprieties, this may not be Trump’s only setback in the coming months.
At the very least, this decision weakens Trump’s hand when trying to force other nations to make concessions to the US and tarnishes his veneer of invincibility.
Weakness begets weakness, and America’s trading partners may be emboldened to take a tougher line with the US now that the president’s tariff powers have been curtailed.
It also opens up the possibility that the Trump administration may have to give back much of the tariff revenue it collected over the past year.
While the justices left this thorny issue to be decided by a lower court, Brett Kavanaugh in his dissent warned that the process is likely to be a “mess”.
The Trump administration had plenty of time to prepare for Friday’s decision.
Supreme Court precedent, and the attitude of many of the justices when the case was argued in court last November, indicated that an adverse outcome for the president was quite possible.
Jamieson Greer, Trump’s top trade adviser, said last month that the White House has “a lot of different options” on how to proceed if the tariffs were struck down.
“The reality,” he said, “is the president is going to have tariffs as part of his trade policy going forward.”
The other options that could be at Trump’s disposal are more limited, however.
They require government agencies to produce detailed reports to justify imposing tariffs, and they have limits on their scope and duration.
Gone are the days when the president could threaten, or enact, triple-digit tariffs with the wave of a pen or the click of a Truth Social post.
New tariffs will require a longer lead-in time before they are imposed.
That could limit the kind of economic disruption that took place when the president announced his expansive “Liberation Day” tariffs last year, and would give other nations more time to prepare their responses.
If Trump wants to restore his free hand to impose new tariffs, he could always ask Congress for the kind of explicit authorisation that the Supreme Court has said is necessary. But with narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate, and midterm elections looming, the success of such a move seems unlikely.
In fact, some of Trump’s conservative allies in Congress may be breathing somewhat easier with this decision.
The president’s tariffs – and the costs they have imposed on consumers – have been unpopular among many Americans. Republican candidates in battleground states and congressional districts would have been open to Democratic attacks for supporting Trump’s policies.
That area of vulnerability has been reduced for now.
Friday’s decision will set up an awkward moment on Tuesday, when Trump delivers his annual State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress. Traditionally, many of the Supreme Court justices sit in the front row of the chamber.
The president, after spending months issuing dire warnings against the court, could stand eye-to-eye with the justices who eroded one of the key pillars of Trump’s second-term agenda.
41: That’s the number of times New Zealand and Pakistan faced each other across formats in a 30-month period between October 2022 and April 2025. Twenty four of those meetings came in T20Is, with the sides compensating for a tour which New Zealand abandoned in 2021, citing security concerns by piling on as many bilateral engagements as is it was possible to fit in a calendar.
Aside from a T20 World Cup semi-final in Sydney in 2022, none of those games mattered as much as the one in Colombo on February 21. Both sides have much convincing to do as credible title-contenders after a group stage which saw them ease past lower-ranked teams while getting thumped by the one powerhouse they played. In New Zealand’s case, it was South Africa who gave them a battering, while Pakistan were left similarly bruised by an Indian side that has otherwise not quite hit its straps.
For New Zealand, the biggest challenge is the switch of venue. They played all of their games in Chennai and Ahmedabad, and relied on a balance between seam and spin that leaned towards the former, with Mitchell Santner the only frontline spinner and Rachin Ravindra or Glenn Phillips chipping in with the odd over. In Colombo, that balance is likely to reverse as the slower bowlers take centre stage, something Pakistan have deployed so effectively in most of their matches.
Santner’s men have not tinkered much with the batting order, which has held up remarkably well for the most part. Against weaker oppositions, some combination of openers Finn Allen and Tim Seifert, or top order batters Ravindra and Phillips, have showcased enough firepower to ease home. Opposition attacks have also struggled to puncture their way through, with New Zealand losing just 14 wickets in four games, the second fewest for any side in this tournament.
Unlike New Zealand, Pakistan know this city intimately well by now. Three of their four games may have been played at the SSC – the other Colombo ground – but their match against India here at the RPS was, like Saturday’s contest, also an evening game, giving them a valuable read into the pitch and conditions. It is the venue they used more spin on than any other, with captain Salman Ali Agha suggesting that would only continue in the Super Eight.
Pakistan’s top order has the explosiveness to blow teams away, even if they have struggled to translate that potential with form for Saim Ayub. Sahibzada Farhan at the other end has taken on the mantle for powerplay run-scoring as runs for Agha having dried up before the game against Namibia, and Babar Azam no nearer to maximising his ability. That fragility too quickly brings up a middle order comprising too many bowling allrounders or the untested Khawaja Nafay, a situation that led to a near-defeat against the Netherlands and a decisive defeat against India.
This is two teams situated among the middle powers of this World Cup, eager to demonstrate they’re better than what they managed against true superpowers like India and South Africa. What matters, ultimately, is which of them can show they’re better than the middle power they face off against on Saturday.
Jacob Duffy takes a wicket against Pakistan every 10.5 deliveries. Among bowlers with at least 15 scalps against Pakistan, no one in the world matches that strike rate. Eighteen of his 62 wickets have come against Saturday’s opponents, at an average of 12.77, comfortably the best amongst teams he has played more than five games against. The catch, however, is that all but one of those wickets have come in New Zealand, in conditions very different to what’ll be in front of him at the Premadasa in Colombo. But Hardik Pandya, who boasts an almost equally impressive record against Pakistan, did not find this very venue an impediment against bowling effectiveness against Pakistan. Duffy will hope to have similar success.
Abrar Ahmed was, arguably harshly, dropped against Namibia after an off-day against India. But his longer-term form makes it unlikely he will stay out of the side again in the raised stakes of the Super Eight. He was Pakistan’s second-highest wicket-taker in 2025, and at the Asia Cup last year, his economy rate of 5.36 in spin-friendly conditions was by far the most miserly in the tournament. All of that points to the India game being an aberration, with Pakistan needing him at his best for the business stages. He was Pakistan’s best bowler in the two series against Sri Lanka and Australia prior to this World Cup, and how he responds to the wake-up call of his axing may go some distance to determining the fate of Saturday’s game.
Abrar Ahmed is expected to come back into the side, but Pakistan will not want to make wholesale changes to a team that delivered so handsomely in their must-win game against Namibia.
Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha (capt) Babar Azam, Khawaja Nafay, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan (wk) Mohammad Nawaz/Faheem Ashraf, Salman Mirza, Usman Tariq, Abrar Ahmed
New Zealand will take a late call on Lockie Ferguson, who gets into Sri Lanka on Friday night after being granted paternity leave. It will be interesting to see how New Zealand manage to incorporate more spin into their XI to reconcile with Sri Lankan conditions. That might bring Ish Sodhi in for his first game this World Cup.
New Zealand: Tim Seifert (wk), Finn Allen, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner (capt), Jimmy Neesham, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi Jacob Duffy
[Cricinfo]
Oman 104 in 16.2 overs (Jatinder Singh 17, Karan Sonavale 12, Hammad Mirza 16, Wasim Ali 32; Marcus Stoinis 1-16, Nathan Ellis 1-14, Adam Zampa 4-21, Glenn Maxwell 2-13, Xavier Bartlett 2-27) lost to Australia 108/1 in 9.4 overs (Mitchell Marsh 64*, Travis Head 32, Josh Inglis 12*; Shakeel Ahmed 1-29) by 9 wickets
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