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At the G7 Summit today, President of the United States Joe Biden announced $20 million in additional assistance to strengthen food security in Sri Lanka.

Building on other recent funding announcements from the United States, this newly posted assistance will target Sri Lankans most in need during the current economic crisis.

The funding aims to support a school nutrition program that will feed over 800,000 Sri Lankan children and provide food vouchers for over 27,000 pregnant and lactating women over the next 15 months.

The effort also plans to support approximately 30,000 farmers through the contribution of agricultural assistance and cash in order to increase food production in vulnerable Sri Lankan communities.

“President Biden’s announcement of $20 million in additional assistance to Sri Lanka demonstrates the United States’ ongoing commitment to food security, public health, and the economic well-being of all Sri Lankan people,” said U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung. “The United States will continue to support Sri Lankan efforts to promote economic stability and will ensure this assistance reaches the communities – and children – who need it most.”

The $20 million of humanitarian assistance announced today builds on nearly $12 million in recent U.S. commitments in economic and humanitarian assistance, totaling $32 million in U.S. support for the Sri Lankan people since June 16, 2022. Funding is provided through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and will be awarded to partners that adhere to globally recognized monitoring and evaluation standards. This ensures that funding is accounted for and assistance reaches those identified as most vulnerable to food insecurity.

The Minister of Finance has issued an order to reduce the amount of foreign currency retained in possession by an individual in Sri Lanka from USD 15,000 t0 USD 10,000 or its equivalent in other foreign currency.

The directive, issued pursuant to Section 08 of Foreign Exchange Act No. 12 of 2017, is effective from the 16th of June.

In a statement, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) said the decision was taken with the intention of attracting foreign currency in the hands of the public into the formal banking system.

According to the CBSL, an amnesty period of 14 working days effective from the date of the Order (June 16, 2022) is granted for persons in, or resident in, Sri Lanka who hold foreign currency notes in possession for the following:

• To deposit into a Personal Foreign Currency Account or into a Business Foreign Currency Account as specified in the Order, or

• To sell to an Authorized Dealer (A licensed commercial bank or National Savings Bank)

At the end of the said amnesty period, the CBSL has the right to initiate actions against persons who hold foreign currency in possession by violating the Order, in terms of the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Act.

For further information, the general public can contact any licensed commercial bank or National Savings Bank, or refer to the Order under Section 8 of the Foreign Exchange Act published in the Gazette (Extraordinary) Notification No. 2284/34 dated 16 June 2022 via the official website of the Department of Foreign Exchange (www.dfe.lk).

They can also contact the Department of Foreign Exchange via 011-2477255, 011-2398511 and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) says it will accept proposals from the general public on the electricity tariff hike from tomorrow (June 28) for three weeks.

The proposed tariff increase proposed by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) can be viewed on the PUCSL website from tomorrow, its chairman Janaka Ratnayake said.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has sought the approval of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka, the electricity sector regulator, for an 82% increase in tariffs for the year 2022 under Section 30 of the Sri Lanka Electricity Act No. 20 of 2009.

However, the PUCSL is of the view that the tariff increase should not exceed 57% as a concession to the majority of household electricity consumers, Mr. Ratnayake said.

He added: “There are 3.14 million of household electricity consumers who consumers electricity less than 60 units per month. It accounts for about 50% of the total household electricity consumers. Therefore, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka has recommended to the Government to provide a subsidy of Rs. 65 billion to that category of consumers. By providing this subsidy, the Ceylon Electricity Board will be able to avoid a large increase in tariffs for the category who consumes less than 60 units per month.”

“According to the CEB proposal, the average monthly electricity bill for the category who consumes less than 30 units will be increased to Rs. 507. The average monthly bill for those who consume more than 30 units and less than 60 units, will increase to Rs. 1488.”

“As a result of this subsidy, instead of such a tariff increase, the average monthly electricity bill for consumers below 30 units can be maintained at 227 rupees and the average monthly electricity bill for consumers more than 30 units less than 60 units can be maintained at 658 rupees.”

“The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) points out that although a 138 percent tariff increase has been proposed for the entire domestic sector, it should not exceed 67 percent. The CEB also has proposed to increase electricity tariffs by 45 percent for general purpose consumers, 61 percent for industrial consumers, 43 percent for hotels, 43 percent for government agencies and 189 percent for places of worship,”

The CEB targets to increase the average price of a unit of electricity by 82% from Rs. 18.14 to Rs. 32.48, according to the proposed tariff revision.

Explaining further, Mr Ratnayake says, “The Ceylon Electricity Board is targeting an annual revenue of Rs. 512 billion through this tariff revision. However, the recommendation of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka is that the price of an average unit of electricity should not exceed Rs. 28.14. We also recommend that the Ceylon Electricity Board should reduce their operating costs by 10 percent by increasing its efficiency and use that savings to get more renewable energy for the system.”

In addition, the PUCSL has observed that the conditions imposed on the Ceylon Electricity Board with the revision of tariffs in 2014 have not yet been fulfilled.

Those conditions were:

1. Implementation of a proper agreements to generate and supply electricity from power plants owned by the Ceylon Electricity Board.

2. Implementation of a proper agreement method for electricity transactions between the Transmission and Distribution Divisions (between licensees) of the Ceylon Electricity Board.

3. Introduction of a proper system for keeping separate accounts for the financial activities of the various divisions of the Ceylon Electricity Board (Generation, Transmission and Distribution) and determining the subsidy requirements.

4. Introduction of an independent audit system for the process of purchasing electricity.

The PUCSL points out that the cost and efficiency of the CEB could not be properly identified due to the failure of implementing above steps.

The PUCSL also asks CEB to accept the monthly electricity bills in dollars from the companies who earns their income in dollars.

Relevant information regarding the proposed tariff revision (Public Consultation Document) will be published on the website of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka.

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka requests all parties, including the public, to submit their views and proposals regarding the tariff revision. Written comments can be submitted by the email or fax until July 18, 2022, and details of the date and venue for the oral public consultation session will be announced in due course. The oral session will also be facilitated online.

Sri Lanka’s Energy Minister in an update on fuel shipments to the country said that the suppliers that had confirmed Petrol, Diesel and Crude Oil Shipments to arrive earlier this week and next week has communicated the inability to fulfill the deliveries on time for banking and logistic reasons.

He said that until the next shipments are at Port and unloaded, Public Transport, Power Generation and Industries will be given a priority.

“Limited stocks of Diesel and Petrol will be distributed to limited stations throughout next week,” tweeted the Minister requesting the public not to remain in queues for fuel.

He went on to note that at the moment CPC is not able to confirm the arrival dates of the shipments with the new developments.

He said the the refinery operations will be temporarily closed until the next crude shipment.

“We are working with all new and existing suppliers. I Apologize for the delay and inconvenience,” said the Minister.

The United States has agreed to provide technical assistance for fiscal management in Sri Lanka, said the Prime Minister’s Media Division.

Kelly Keiderling, Deputy Secretary of State for South and Central Asia at the U.S. State Department, who arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday, held a discussion with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today (27).

The US Diplomatic Group also stated its support for the ongoing talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the International Monetary Fund.

Robert Kaproth, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Asia in the United States and Julie Chung, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, also participated in the discussion held at the Prime Minister’s Office.

In addition, Secretary to the Prime Minister Saman Ekanayake and Senior Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr. R.H. Samaratunga was also present.

All schools which were closed over the last week owing to the fuel crisis are scheduled to function for three days in the coming week, as per a notice issued by the Ministry of Education.

Accordingly, schools will reopen from Tuesday (28) to Thursday (29), between 07:30 am and 01:30 pm, while online classes will continue on those days that students are absent.

The primary sections of these schools, however, will function at the discretion of the respective principals.

Meanwhile, schools in rural areas that remain unaffected by transportation and the fuel crisis will continue with their academic activities for the entire week, just as they did from 20 to 24 June.

With regards to teachers, the Education Ministry noted that teachers who are unable to attend school owing to transportation difficulties will not be subject to leave deductions, and assured that their absence will not be considered a private holiday.

The Ministry of Education has decided to NOT open schools in the Colombo Zone and City schools across all provinces from 27th June until 1st of July.

The decision has been reached in view of the difficulties faced in fuel distribution.

However, the Education Ministry states that schools not located in cities and rural areas will open as usual if the students and teachers do not face difficulties due to transportation issues.

If such a problem persists, the Ministry has instructed for schools to operate only on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays.

Teachers with transportation issues in the said schools should be given flexible timetables by the principal, without penalising their holidays.

Moreover, if any G.C.E. Ordinary Level term examinations have been scheduled to be held from 27th June onwards, they should be postponed for two weeks, the Ministry of Education adds.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says that steps will be taken to legally grant land and house ownership to millions of people who do not have a deed to their own lands and homes.

The program to hand over land ownership to landless families under the ‘Land for All’ program began this morning at the Prime Minister’s Office.

This program is implemented by the Ministry of Tourism and Lands through the Land Reforms Commission and the Department of the Land Commissioner General.

Harin Fernando, Minister of Tourism and Lands stated that the first step in granting land ownership to all persons in the island who do not have legal title to the land will be the issuance of deeds from today.

The Minister further stated that arrangements have been made to issue between 1,000 and 3,000 deeds to the land owners every week under this program which was prepared with the objective of giving those who have lost their land in their a legal right.

Parallel to this program, title deeds were issued in Puttalam and Kurunegala Divisional Secretariats today.

Minister of Labor and External Affairs Manusha Nanayakkara, Chairman of the Land Reforms Commission and the Commissioner General of Lands and a number of officials and deed holders were present at the occasion which symbolized the awarding of title deeds.

The All Island Canteen Owners Association has decided to increase the price of a rice packet and all other food items 10 per cent.

President of the Association Asela Sampath said the decision was taken due to the hike in fuel prices announced earlier today.

He said that if the prices of food items are not revised, restaurants that are currently 60% closed will have to close completely due to the rising price of essentials.

The Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court today ordered the release of former Minister Kumara Welgama from the bribery case filed against him.

The case was taken up before Colombo Chief Magistrate Nandana Amarasinghe today (June 24).

The Bribery Commission had lodged the case, accusing the former minister of allegedly incurring losses to the government by creating an unapproved vice chairperson position at the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB), appointing one of his associates to the said position, making salary payment to the tune of LKR 3 million.

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) approved power cuts for 3 hours per day from 27th June until 03rd July as follows;

Groups ABCDEFGHIJKLPQRSTUVW

1 hour and 40 minutes during daytime 1hour and 20minutes during night.

Group CC

2 hours from 6.00am to 8.00am (Except 2nd and 3rd July)

Groups MNOXYZ

3 hours from 5.00am to 8.00am(Except 2nd and 3rd July)

Social activist and Sri Lankan YouTuber Rathindu Senaratne alias ‘Ratta’ and national organizer of ‘Youth for Change’ Lahiru Weerasekara along with five others have surrendered to the Maradana Police yesterday (22).

They were wanted over the unrest in early June where two separate protests staged in front of the Education Ministry in Thalangama and the Police Headquarters in Colombo- Fort took a violent turn.

However, student union leader Wasantha Mudalige and Venerable Galwewa Siridhamma Thera who were also involved in the incident have not surrendered to the police.

Jagath Manuwarna, Dhammika Munasinghe, Rathkarawwe Jinaratana Thera, Eranga Gunasekera and Jehan Appuhamy are amongst the group.