News

The Colombo Magistrate's Court has ordered that Member of Parliament Chamara Sampath Dassanayake and his private secretary, who are in remand custody over corruption allegations, be further remanded until November 10.

Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama issued the order after considering submissions made by officers of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) and lawyers representing the suspects.

A high-level political delegation from the Sarvajana Balaya has met with China's newly appointed envoy in Colombo to discuss deepening bilateral ties and expanding economic cooperation.

Party leader MP Dilith Jayaweera led the group during discussions at the Chinese Embassy with Ambassador Wei Huaxiang, covering trade, infrastructure, and educational opportunities for Sri Lankan youth.

During the nearly two-hour meeting, Jayaweera commended Beijing for its unwavering assistance, noting that China remains a vital partner that has consistently provided support without demanding heavy returns.

In response, Ambassador Wei described China's development philosophy as focused on capacity building, aimed at teaching local populations to become self-reliant rather than relying purely on direct aid.

The diplomat assured the delegation that Beijing operates without hidden motives in its infrastructure funding, highlighting major projects such as the Colombo Port City, Hambantota Harbour, and the Norochcholai Power Plant as long-term economic assets for the island nation.

Addressing local welfare, Ambassador Wei detailed ongoing initiatives to supply clean drinking water to areas hit by chronic kidney disease, noting that such projects directly assist thousands of citizens.

Furthermore, the Chinese envoy extended official invitations for Sarvajana Balaya representatives to undertake a study tour of China and conduct an inspection visit of the Hambantota Harbour, while also pledging higher education scholarship quotas for Sri Lankan students.

To foster closer links, Jayaweera urged the embassy to facilitate greater access to Chinese expertise, business knowledge, and entrepreneurial practices to bolster local enterprise competitiveness.

Accompanied by key party officials including Chairperson Roshan Ranasinghe and senior deputy office-bearers, the Sarvajana Balaya leader formally invited Ambassador Wei to visit the party's headquarters as both sides reaffirmed their commitment to ongoing bilateral dialogue.

The Colombo Magistrate's Court has directed the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) to submit an update on the progress of investigations into the controversial Krrish deal on November 20.

When the case was taken up today, MP Namal Rajapaksa, who was previously granted bail in connection with the case, was produced before the court by prison officers.

Meanwhile, the court ordered that another suspect in the case, Janaki Siriwardhana, be further remanded until November 20.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa said that the National People’s Power (NPP) government has imposed severe economic hardship on the public by following the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) policy agenda, despite winning office on a left-wing platform.

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) leader made the remarks in parliament yesterday (04), a week before the government is due to present its budget on 12 November.

Claims of a shift to the right

Premadasa said the party that once revered Marx, Lenin and Stalin now looks up to capitalist thinkers such as Adam Smith. He said the NPP had signalled a move to the left during the election campaign but was now heading towards the extreme right. He described the government as a founding force of neoliberalism that was openly deceiving voters.

He said that voters had chosen a government to protect their rights, deliver justice and fairness and safeguard their lives. In his view, the current policy instead crushes livelihoods while allowing crony capitalists to thrive. He added that the government had done little more than follow the IMF’s lead without regard for ordinary people.

Fiscal targets and tax burden

The opposition leader said the IMF had asked for a primary surplus of 2.3% of gross domestic product (GDP), yet the government had pushed the figure to 5.4% at the public’s expense. He added that revenue of 13.9% of GDP had been deemed adequate, but the government raised the tax burden to 15.4%, taking money directly from household pockets.

Unmet election pledges

Premadasa recalled that, while in opposition, NPP figures had promised a Vitz car for Rs 1.2 million and a Japanese motorcycle for Rs 50,000. He said none of these pledges had been realised. He noted that the government had also promised to sell fuel at the price paid at the port, but prices had continued to climb. He said it had further pledged to cut electricity bills by 33%, yet was now preparing another tariff increase.

He said 80,000 graduates remained jobless after being given false promises to win their votes, and that commitments to teacher development officers and farmers had also gone unfulfilled.

Aswesuma

Premadasa said the government had still not completed the household income and expenditure survey, and was therefore drafting its budget without knowing the true poverty line. He said the NPP had claimed to be made up of walking encyclopaedias but did not grasp the real situation in the country.

He estimated that between 30% and 40% of the population now lives in poverty, and said the IMF itself had found Sri Lanka to have the highest youth unemployment, among those aged 18 to 24. He said industries were closing, jobs were vanishing and the government had no plan to halt the decline.

He also criticised the Aswesuma welfare programme, saying genuine poverty alleviation must cover consumption, production, savings, investment and exports, whereas Aswesuma addressed consumption alone. He said the scheme rested on inaccurate and unscientific data and had failed completely.

Counter-terrorism legislation

Premadasa further alleged that the government was trying to stifle public protest through a proposed law on protecting the state against terrorism. He said it was violating the economic and social rights of 22 million people. He claimed the bill would allow the government to pursue political opponents and would empower the president to decide who counts as a terrorist, which he described as both a restriction on democracy and a betrayal of the people’s mandate.

Call for elections

He urged the government to lower the tax burden and deliver the relief it had promised. He then challenged ministers, if they had the courage, to take note of political shifts in the United States, hold Provincial Council elections immediately and accept the verdict of the electorate.

Sri Lanka’s failure to capture high-value global tourism stems from decades of mismanaged state land pricing, weak coastal zoning, and arbitrary arrival targets lacking strategic backing, an industry expert said.

Speaking at the THINC Tourism Conference in Colombo on 15 October 2026, TWC Holdings Chairman Thilan Wijesinghe outlined critical structural missteps that have constrained the nation’s hospitality sector over the past 20 years.

Drawing on his experience launching luxury ventures such as Ceylon Tea Trails, Wijesinghe called for an immediate overhaul of national tourism policy to elevate the island beyond low-yield market segments.

Policy missteps and structural failures

Critiquing past administrative decisions, Wijesinghe noted that successive governments mistakenly treated numerical arrival targets as a substitute for comprehensive tourism planning.

State authorities were faulted for mispricing scarce coastal land, with 99-year leases in 2012 priced at roughly Rs. 20 million per acre on the East Coast—representing a 400 per cent premium over local freehold values—which forced investors to shrink project footprints or abandon ventures entirely.

The deregulation of coastal height limits further damaged high-end destinations like Tangalle and Talpe by allowing high-rise apartment builds to encroach on finite beachfront land.

Consequently, only six per cent of Sri Lanka’s graded resort inventory is currently managed by international brands, compared with at least 33 per cent in competing destinations such as the Maldives, Mauritius, and Vietnam.

Proposals for reform and transformation

To rectify these historical imbalances, Wijesinghe proposed five core policy interventions, including the enforcement of strict destination-level zoning, government viability-gap funding for domestic aviation to connect the North and East, and tax measures targeting long-term speculative holding of undeveloped beachfront property.

He also urged state support for rebranding aging hotels through international joint ventures and restricting coastal high-rise developments to designated urban zones.

Wijesinghe also highlighted two transformative infrastructure proposals.

He suggested partnering with global luxury rail operators like Orient Express to utilise the historic Colombo-Badulla track, and exploring the feasibility of hosting a Formula One street race circuit connecting Galle Face and Colombo Port City.

Strategic execution to unlock value

The address concluded with an emphasis on shifting national strategy from volume-driven metrics to high-yield tourism experiences.

With international management agreements recently secured for luxury developments including a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, Wijesinghe stressed that Sri Lanka must capitalize on renewed investor interest from India and the Middle East by establishing consistent policies to turn its natural assets into long-term economic value.

A former Civil Defence officer has been arrested on suspicion of removing the tusk of an elephant found dead without its tusk in the Kumbukwewa area of Kahatagasdigiliya.

The 34-year-old suspect was taken into custody by officers from the Kahatagasdigiliya Wildlife Range Office following investigations into the elephant's death.

During searches conducted at the suspect's residence and cultivation hut, wildlife officers recovered several items, including an elephant deterrent explosive, an explosive device allegedly made using petrol, a homemade firearm, a bag containing gunpowder and related accessories, a curved knife, a metal-cutting hacksaw and several pieces of timber suspected to have been cut from the area where the elephant was found.

Wildlife officers suspect that the recovered hacksaw may have been used to remove the elephant's tusk.

The suspect was produced before the Kahatagasdigiliya Magistrate's Court today (05), where an order was issued to remand him until November 18.

Wildlife authorities are continuing investigations into the incident.

Sri Lanka’s national poverty rate has climbed to 16 per cent following the economic crisis, leaving approximately 3.42 million people living below the official threshold.

The figures were published by the Department of Census and Statistics in its preliminary Household Income and Expenditure Survey for the first quarter of 2025, which gathered data from a nationally representative sample of 25,000 households.

The findings show that post-crisis price increases have reversed years of steady poverty reduction across the island.

Stark regional disparities persist across the country, with the rural sector accommodating the vast majority of the impoverished population at roughly 2.9 million individuals.

The estate sector recorded the highest overall poverty rate at 23 per cent, while the rural sector stood at 17.3 per cent and urban areas registered 7.8 per cent.

Analysts emphasize that while nominal household income surged to an average of 120,266 rupees per month, severe inflation eroded real earning power by nearly 8 per cent compared with 2019 levels.

Median households suffered an even sharper purchasing power contraction of 11.1 per cent.

Although average monthly household expenditure rose to 116,191 rupees, experts attribute the higher spending almost entirely to inflated prices rather than improved living conditions.

Reflecting the soaring costs of basic foodstuffs and essential goods, the official individual monthly poverty line more than doubled from Rs. 6,966 rupees in 2019 to Rs. 16,417 in 2025.

The government plans to acquire four advanced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the Sri Lanka Air Force from Israel Aerospace Industries through a government-to-government arrangement, Deputy Minister of Defence Major General Aruna Jayasekara (Retd.) told Parliament today.

He said the proposed acquisition is intended to strengthen the country's maritime surveillance capabilities while improving search and rescue operations and disaster response efforts.

Meanwhile, Parliament is scheduled to approve a supplementary estimate of Rs. 4.261 billion today for the establishment of the UAV system.

US-based Tamil diaspora groups have expressed deep disappointment over the reported outcome of recent talks between a Tamil delegation and Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi.

The delegation, which included Sri Lankan Tamil Members of Parliament Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and Dr. Ilayathamby Srinath alongside diaspora and Indian political representatives, met the Indian minister on October 28, 2026 to discuss the Tamil national question.

However, diaspora commentators argue that the engagement failed to adequately articulate core historical and political demands, relying instead on limited assurances regarding economic relief and religious protection.

Questioning legitimacy and historical core

Critics within the diaspora community maintain that addressing religious heritage and financial aid cannot substitute for a comprehensive resolution to the Tamil national question.

Concerns have been raised over how the delegation was selected, the exact mandate granted to non-elected participants, and whether fundamental principles such as self-determination, historical sovereignty, and the 1977 electoral mandate were explicitly presented during the session.

Although Ponnambalam reported receiving verbal assurances that Indian funds would not be used to compromise Tamil identity or Hindu heritage sites, diaspora observers point out the absence of written commitments, clear implementation timetables, or formal monitoring mechanisms.

Demands for legal scrutiny and total transparency

Advocating for a solution rooted in international legal frameworks, diaspora representatives insist that any lasting political settlement must confront the Tamil people's right to self-determination as outlined under United Nations conventions.

They have formally called on the meeting organisers to publish the submitted memorandum, detail the specific arguments made regarding Tamil national rights, and outline the exact responses given by the Indian finance minister.

Until a complete and documented account is provided, the US Tamil Diaspora has rejected the reported proceedings as an insufficient expression of Tamil political aspirations.

Deputy Minister Sunil Watagala told Parliament today that stocks of tear gas held by the police have expired due to non-use.

He also stated that any group was free to organise protests against the government and that members of the public had the right to criticise the government.

"Any group is allowed to stage protests against the government. Likewise, anyone is free to criticise the government," he said.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Ajith P. Perera has accused the government of improperly removing a no-confidence motion against the Speaker of Parliament from the official Order Paper.

He raised the allegation in parliament during an adjournment debate on the country's export economy.

Perera said that a panel presided over by Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne voted to pull the censure motion on 23 October without seeking advice from the Attorney General.

He said the motion was originally submitted on 9 October and formally entered into the parliamentary schedule on 12 October, after which the Committee on Parliamentary Business agreed on 16 October to consult the state's chief legal officer.

He emphasised that established parliamentary tradition required the Deputy Speaker to preside whenever a Speaker faced a motion of no confidence.

He detailed that the submission contained 50 distinct allegations, comprising 17 charges concerning the misuse of public funds, 20 counts relating to interference in bribery investigations and conflicts of interest, and 13 allegations regarding the erosion of democracy and parliamentary impartiality.

Perera stressed that opposition members retain a clear right to present their arguments on these matters on the floor of the House.

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has announced that the mandatory submission of Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) certificates for eight specified transactions has been postponed until April 1, 2027.

The requirement was initially scheduled to take effect on November 1, 2026. However, its implementation has been deferred following a significant increase in public demand for TIN certificates.

According to the IRD, the decision was made with the approval of the Ministry of Finance, taking into consideration the growing demand from both individuals involved in the specified transactions and the general public.

The mandatory submission requirement was introduced under Section 103(6) of the Inland Revenue Act, No. 24 of 2017, as amended by the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Act, No. 11 of 2026. It was communicated through Circular No. SEC/PN/IT/2026/05 dated September 22, 2026.

During the extended period, the IRD plans to introduce alternative and more convenient methods for individuals who have already registered for a TIN to obtain their certificates.

The Department has also encouraged individuals who have not yet obtained a TIN to complete their registration through its online e-Services platform.

The IRD stressed that the requirement has been postponed rather than cancelled and will become effective on April 1, 2027.