Category: News

700 K government officers threaten TU action over salaries Demand Rs. 18 K salary hike for public servants Two-week written ultimatum sent to Prez, PM, Basil BY Buddhika Samaraweera (The Morning 17-11-2021) The Sri Lanka Government Officers’ Trade Union Association (SLGOTUA) has warned that if there is no positive response from the Government to their request to increase the salaries of public servants as a remedy to the rising cost of living (CoL), more than 700,000 public servants will inevitably go on a trade union action after 27 November. The…

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Lankans lining up to migrate (Daily FT 17-11-2021) Survey reveals reasons linked to dissatisfaction with COVID strategy and economic prospects, but Opposition failing to benefit A new survey shows that increasing numbers of Sri Lankans want to leave the country, probably more than at any time in the past five years.  The findings were released yesterday by compiler of the survey the Institute for Health Policy (IHP) via the Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) that was launched to assess public opinion as the country recovers from COVID-19. IHP said…

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Emirates announces 2 more flights to CMB a week from today Emirates announced its operation of two additional flights a week to Colombo from today (15) to support the resurgence of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry as more key source markets relax travel restrictions. The award-winning Dubai-based global airline said the added frequencies will increase direct flights between Dubai and Colombo to 14 a week, taking Emirates’ weekly schedule to Sri Lanka’s commercial capital to 21 flights a week, with the daily flight between Colombo and Male. Effective today, Emirates flight…

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Sri Lanka budget 2022: key tax changes ECONOMYNEXT  (13-11-2021) Sri Lanka’s budget for 2022 has proposed new taxes after a value added tax cut in 2019 for ‘fiscal stimulus’ devastated state revenues, triggering money printing which has resulted in a balance of payments crisis. The budget proposed to raise revenues from a revised 1,556 billion rupees in 2021 (9.4 percent of GDP) to 2,284 billion rupees (12.3 percent of GDP) in 2022. Authorities hope to bring the deficit down from 1,826 billion rupees (11.1 percent of GDP) to 1,628 billion…

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Basil’s Budget today (Daily FT) 2022 Budget presentation at 2 p.m. in Parliament Second Reading vote on 22 Nov., final vote on 10 Dec. Simultaneous interpretation in sign language for first time Public Gallery to remain closed; diplomats, select invitees to attend Attendees at FM’s post-Budget presentation tea party, too, restricted Amidst internal and external challenges the Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa will present his maiden Budget to Parliament at 2 p.m. today. This will be the 76th budget of an independent Sri Lanka and the second budget of the Government…

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Government agrees to teachers’ salary demand To pay salary hike in one go through Budget Stalin claims a drama played out at meeting Budget’s education allocation to exceed 6% for first time BY Buddhika Samaraweera(The Morning) Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa has agreed to grant the salary increase recommended by the Cabinet Sub-Committee (SC) appointed to look into the teacher-principal salary anomaly issue in one go, through the budget proposal for the financial year 2022, according to the Teachers’ and Principals’ Trade Union Alliance (TPTUA). Representatives of the TPTUA met Prime…

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The World Science Day for Peace and Development – 10th November (The Morning 9th Nov) Sri Lanka is a country that has produced a number of scientists, engineers, inventors and mathematicians, and persons like Dr. Ray Wijewardene, Dr. Sarath Gunapala and Prof. Neelika Malavige, among a number of others, have brought fame to the country during the past few decades. They have proved that science and technology, if embraced correctly, can not only bring commercial and scientific success, but can also help the growth and survival of the human race. [/caption]…

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Teachers, health workers in Sri Lanka promise TU action on Nov 9 over salary issues   (ECONOMYNEXT)  School teachers and health sector workers in Sri Lanka are to engage in trade union activity on Tuesday (09) over salary anomalies and other issues. Declaring a national day of protests, Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) general secretary Joseph Stalin told reporters on Monday (08) that school teachers and principals affiliated with the union will hold protests outside all zonal education offices around the island. The union is demanding a speedy solution to a…

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