Tag: Lanka

The Rajapaksa-backed candidate received votes from 148 out of 225 MPs while the opposition’s candidate received only 65 votes….reports SUSITHA FERNANDO

Amidst a month long public protests and ahead of Friday’s island wide “Hartal” to bring Sri Lanka to a standstill demanding the government to “go home”, the ruling Rajapaksas in a secret vote on Thursday to elect a new Deputy Speaker, proved that it still holds majority in the Parliament.

The Rajapaksa-backed candidate’s victory at the parliament was proved a precursor to the outcome of two no-trust motions filed by the main opposition to oust President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and PM Mahinda Rajapaksa.

However, the Rajapaksas’ victory has complicated the current political impasse where angry people, waiting at fuel and gas stations and supermarket without food and pharmacies without medicines, demand all Rajapaksas to step down and handover the government.

Former Deputy Speaker Ranjith Siyambalapitya, an MP from Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) of former President Maithripala Sirisena, last month announced his resignation from the post following 40 MPs of his party who had been elected to Parliament from the Rajapaksa lead Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), decided to stay independent.

However last week on an invitation by President Rajapaksa to form an interim government, the SLFP and other 11 coalition political parties, which also threatened to be independent, sat with President and agreed to form an interim government dropping PM Mahinda Rajapaksa.

However, on Thursday, the Parliament decided replace the Deputy Speaker and the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (United People’s Power) proposed an MP from its party.

The Rajapaksa-backed candidate received votes from 148 out of 225 MPs while the opposition’s candidate received only 65 votes.

Opposition MPs alleged that the election for Deputy Speaker was a plot to prove the government’s majority when the entire country is demanding it to step down.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam told parliament that when the

entire country demanding Rajapaksas to go, 149 MPs in the parliament still wanted to stay with Rajapaksas.

“There are only 65 MPs in the side of the people of this country,” he said.

Facing a worsening crisis, the government on Thursday announced restrictions on fuel for vehicles at Rs 2,000 for motor bicycles, Rs 3,000 for three wheelers, and Rs 8,000 for

cars, vans, and jeeps. For three days, fuel stations have been queued up with people.

With Sri Lanka going through its worst-ever economic crisis with dollar crunch and inflation, the government on Wednesday admitted that country’s dollar reserves had dropped to less than $50 million. Last month, the country announced defaulting of all foreign loans amounting to over $51 billion.

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The Opposition also accused government for its arbitrary decision to ban chemical fertilizer and placing country’s food security in jeopardy, destroyed the economy…reports Asian Lite News

 Sri Lanka’s main Opposition has handed over an impeachment motion to oust beleaguered President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and a no confidence motion against government lead by his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Sajith Premadasa Opposition leader and leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya or United People’s Force handed over two motions to the Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena who is to announce their future cause in Parliament on Wednesday.

No-faith motion is needed majority vote out of 225 MPs while the impeachment of President is a tougher battle 2/3 majority in Parliament followed by the Supreme Court approval is required.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya with nearly 50 MPs in the Parliament needs the support of other Opposition parties and a number of defections from the government.

In its no-faith motion against the government, the Opposition charged that the Prime Minister and the ministers had failed in their collective responsibility to update the Parliament on the financial situation. Making multiple charges, the opposition accused the government has failed to provide basic facilities like food, clothing and housing to its people and made Sri Lanka, the country that has the lowest economic development in South Asia.

“The citizens were subjected to an unbearable inflation by printing over Lkr 3 trillion and the government had never updated the Parliament on this,” the Opposition stated.

The Opposition also accused government for its arbitrary decision to ban chemical fertilizer and placing country’s food security in jeopardy, destroyed the economy by failing to provide fuel and cooking gas and by importing substandard gas and killing eight people due to gas explosions. The government also has severely inconvenienced people by failing to provide power and essential medicines and other equipment’s to run the hospitals. During the Covid-19 pandemic the government “failed” to follow advices given by the medical experts and thereby allowed the death of over 10,000.

In its impeachment motion the Opposition charged that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa misused his powers on April 1 by imposing state of emergency and ban on social media to prevent protest against him. The Opposition accused Rajapaksa government over the killing of a protestor during a public protest demanding fuel.

The Opposition also accused President Rajapaksa’s immediate ban on chemical fertilizers and in delaying to seek the International Monetary Fund (IMF) assistance to face the financial crisis. President has admitted both decisions as ‘mistakes’ and they had adverse impact on the economy, the Opposition said.

The island nation is going through its worst economic crisis with no essential food, fuel, cooking gas and medicine available in stocks and long hours of daily power cuts due to lack fuel for power generation. For more than a month, people have been protesting on streets and Sri Lankans around the world demanding that President Gotabaya and the government be resigned. Protestors have blocked President’s Office and Prime Minister’s official resident Temple Trees.

Trade unions which held a one-day token strike last week is planning to have an island wide ‘Hartal’ on Friday demanding the government to quit.

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The Central Bank is also planning to give relaxation to tourists who were made to pay the hotels in dollars….reports Asian Lite News

Sri Lanka’s Central Bank has announced that they will remove the regulations that made the exporters convert their foreign currency earnings into rupees in the coming future.

In recent months the central bank has imposed various regulations that forced the exporters to convert their US dollars within a period of time to support the island nation’s foreign reserves, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Addressing a press conference, Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe on Friday said, “For services exports like IT and tourism, we will remove the mandatory conversion requirement.”

“We have no way to track these services. Apparently, some exporters are not bringing in foreign currency they make because of the mandatory conversion rule,” he added.

He added that the central bank is also planning to give relaxation to tourists who were made to pay the hotels in dollars, reported Xinhua.

Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka’s central bank governor said domestic debt in the form of government securities and development bonds will not be restructured as restructuring external debt is a top priority for the island nation.

Central bank governor Nandalal Weerasinghe also provided an update on the progress made during the recent discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

Addressing a meeting of the Committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, he said progress has been made towards establishing a macro-fiscal policy framework and initiating structural reforms.

The central bank governor also expressed confidence that a staff-level agreement with the IMF is likely to be reached within the next two months.

Weerasinghe announced that additional measures will be implemented to address urgent economic concerns, reported Xinhua.

The measures include introducing regulations to encourage the U.S. dollar flows currently transacting in the informal market to be channelled through the formal banking system.

As a result of policy measures already introduced by the central bank and the government, he is of the view that expenditure on imports will be declining further to more sustainable levels.

Sri Lanka is going through an economic crisis brought about by foreign currency shortages and it halted external debt repayment on April 12.

Drug price hikes

Adding more burden to the staggering economy of the island nation, the Health Minister of the country Channa Jayasumana issued a special gazette order on Thursday stating a dramatic price hike in the pharmaceutical drugs, yet again shooting up the prices of 60 drugs up by 40 to 60 per cent, reported local media.

This decision will impact the most commonly used medicines as their rates are expected to spike.

Further, the Health Minister has instructed all the medical professionals to adhere to the gazette notification, maintaining the price, as reported by Colombo Page.

“Every trader, distributor, pharmacist, medical practitioner, dentist, veterinary surgeon, medical institution including a private medical institution, pharmacy or person who or which is in possession of the Scheduled Medicines for the purpose of sale shall maintain the price of the Scheduled Medicines at the maximum retail price or revised retail price whichever is less,” states the gazette notification issued by Jayasumana.

Presently, Sri Lanka is facing one of the worst economic woes since gaining independence in 1948. It is grappling with food and electricity shortages, affecting many people, forcing the country to seek help from its neighbours. The recession is attributed to foreign exchange shortages caused by a clampdown on tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has left the country unable to buy enough fuel, with people facing an acute scarcity of food and basic necessities, heating fuel, and gas. (ANI)

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Trade unions, representing banks, railways, education, harbour, electricity, postal, apparel industry and tea estate workers joined the protests while doctors and medical sector too joined the trade union action while on duty….reports SUSITHA FERNANDO

Troubled Sri Lanka came to a near standstill on Thursday with over 1,000 government and private sector trade unions, representing almost all sectors from transportation to banking, striking work to demand that the government quit.

Issuing a 7-day ultimatum to the government, members of the Collective of trade unions, including foreign invested apparel sector, stayed away from work and took to streets demanding the government’s resignation. Transportation came to complete halt with no trains running and private bus owners keeping their vehicles off the road.

Trade union members, who started protest in front of their working places, then marched to President’s Office where a 20-day-long continuous protest is being held.

Trade unions, representing banks, railways, education, harbour, electricity, postal, apparel industry and tea estate workers joined the protests while doctors and medical sector too joined the trade union action while on duty.

“We have given the government till May 6 to resign and if the government does not listen to the people, we will have to have a hartal on May 6,” Ravi Kumudesh of the Collective of Trade Unions and Mass Organisations said.

“If the government is not willing to leave, we will have to kick them out. People are asking the Rajapaksas to go home and they don’t have a mandate anymore,” said Joseph Stalin, General Secretary, Ceylon Teachers’ Union. Trade unions have demanded that trade union action would be expanded if the government decides not to leave.

As the island nation faces its worst-ever economic crisis in the post-independence history, with major price hikes of essential items due to dollar crunch and inflation, people have taken to streets demanding the Rajapaksa government to step down.

Pressured by public protests, economic crisis and demand by religious leaders, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has agree to form an all-party government after cancelling the cabinet headed by his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa. On Wednesday, he invited all political parties to meet him on Friday to start discussion on an all-party government but he is yet receive positive response.

However, Mahinda Rajapaksa is insistent on continuing in power and has said that he would be the head of any new government to be formed.

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