News
University don criticises state of economy and election spending limits
The success of the campaign finance laws is dependent on how serious the political parties are about abiding by election laws, Professor Aminda Methsila Perera, Head of the Department of Accountancy at the Wayamba University says.
“We can only hope that political parties will be honest and transparent with their accounts, and this is a leap of faith,” Prof. Perera told The Island yesterday.
Each candidate could spend about 1.86 billion rupees for campaigning for the 21 September Presidential Elections, as per the gazette published by the Elections Commission, he said.
Prof. Perera said that given all four frontrunners were well known, he was quite alarmed the Election Commission’s decision to allow a colossal sum to be spent on election propaganda.
“I am quite concerned about how we can calculate the expenditure.” He said the introduction of laws that could not be enforced properly only caused an erosion of public faith in the legal process.
Prof. Perera said the government was trying to convince people that the economy had stabilised and Sri Lanka was no longer bankrupt. However, the total debt stock of the country had reached 100 billion U.S. dollars. This is over 100 percent of our GDP. Meanwhile, the country’s exports have declined, Prof. Perera added.
“Our economy now rests on tourism and remittances by Sri Lankans working abroad. Most of our migrant workers are women working as housemaids in the Middle East. We depend on unskilled workers’ labour and pretend the economy is doing well,
Prof. Perera said what looked like economic stability was not due to any proactive step taken by the Sri Lankan government.
“The government talks about digitalizations. Let’s look at ground realities. I have a student of mine working at a Divisional Secretariat. They have a staff of over 220 and apparently, they have only 15 computers. Out of that 13, apart from two, everything else was manufactured before 2005. My student recently asked me whether the university could give them some computers that we had discarded. This is the reality on the ground. Our leaders make bold proclamations,” he said.
As per the provisions of section 51 of the Public Finance Managaement Act No. 44 of 2024, the public should be issued with a report on the final budgetary situation for each year and, the report is then published in the official website of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
Thereby the report has to be submitted to the Parliament. The final budgetary situation report (Annual Report) – 2025 has been prepared by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and published. The report contains the Public Finance Policy, strategies and challenges, economic trends in 2025, macro – economic and socio – economic indicators covering all sectors of the economy as well as description on the global economic growth.
Furthermore, it accompanies a detailed description government revenue and expenditure, cash flow management, financing the budget deficit and the loan structure.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to submit the Report on the Final Budgetary Condition (Annual Report) – 2025 to Parliament.
Business
Cabinet nod to accept increased Loan Grant provided by the Asian Development Bank under Policy Based Loan Facilities – 2026
Approval of the Cabinet of Ministers was granted at their meeting held on 16.03.2026 to obtain United States Dollars 380 million from the policy – based loan facilities of the Asian Development Bank in the year 2026.
United States Dollars 100 million out of it is allocated for Trade, Investment and Industries Development Programme – Sub Programme 1. However, amidst the economic uncertainty resulting from the current Middle East crisis and the climatic tragedies, the Asian Development Bank has agreed to assist
by increasing a supplementary financing package of United States Dollars 100 million so that it will beMincreased up to United States Dollars 200 million.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to take further measures to obtain the said loan grant.
News
Submission of Revenue Protection Order Prepared under the Provisions of the Revenue Protection Act No. 19 of 1962 to the Parliament for its approval.
Approval of the Cabinet of Ministers was given at the meeting held on 23.02.2026 to impose the custom import duty amounts under four (04) categories as 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% which had been executed only under three (03) categories in order to increase the target export income of the country, to execute the
recommendations of the national customs duty policies committee, and to implement new national sub division customs codes for promoting the local agricultural and industrial sector.
Imposing provisions in relation to the above, the Revenue Protection Order – No. 01/2026 under the Revenue Protection Act No. 19 of 1962 has been published in the extraordinary gazette notification No. 2478/03 of 03.03.2026.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to submit the said revenue protection order to Parliament for its concurrence.
Report on the Final Budgetary Condition (Annual Report) – 2025 submited to parliament
Cabinet nod to accept increased Loan Grant provided by the Asian Development Bank under Policy Based Loan Facilities – 2026
Submission of Revenue Protection Order Prepared under the Provisions of the Revenue Protection Act No. 19 of 1962 to the Parliament for its approval.
Resettlement of unauthorized settlers affected by the Land Acquisition process for the implementation of Phase III of the Baseline Road Extension Project
Cabinet approves project to modernize school hostel facilities during the 2026–2028 period at an estimated cost of Rs. 1,008 million
New National Action Plan for Human-Elephant Conflict Management to be drafted
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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