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State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said that excise duty on all varieties of liquor, including wines, beer etc. will be increased by 20%.

He said that the excise duty for alcohol will be increased from midnight today (03).

Due to the 20% increase of Excise Duty on liquor, the prices of a bottle of 750ml Special Arrak will be increased by Rs. 206, locally brewed foreign liquor by Rs. 266, Beer (Vol. 4.8% – 625ml) by Rs. 21 & Beer (Vol. 8.8% – 625ml) by Rs. 39.

State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya further said that the excise duty on cigarettes will also be increased by 20%.

He added that the excise duty for cigarettes will be increased with effect from the 1st of January 2023.

Rs.90 cigarette expected to cost Rs.105, Rs.85 cigarette expected to cost Rs.100, Rs.70 cigarette expected to cost Rs.80, Rs.60 cigarette expected to cost Rs.70, Rs.15 cigarette expected to cost Rs.24.

English letters indicating the province of vehicle number plates will be removed from January 1, 2023, for new vehicle registrations, the Department of Motor Registration announced.

Both the customers as well as the Department of Motor Traffic have encountered many difficulties when number plates have to be changed every time the right of ownership of the vehicles is transferred between Provinces.

The decision has been taken to ease issues faced by customers and the Department of Motor Traffic when issuing vehicle licence plates.

A community kitchen program based at the historic Hunupitiya Gangaramaya Temple was launched yesterday (01) under the leadership of Senior Advisor to the President on National Security and President’s Chief of Staff Sagala Ratnayake.

According to the President’s Media Division (PMD), this program is being implemented targeting 2500 families in Hunupitiya in the Slave Island Police Division, Slave Island, Galle face, Ibbanwela and Wekanda DS Divisions, who are finding it difficult to get food.

This daily community kitchen program will run for 40 days from the 01st of January.

During this period, the government has taken steps to improve the economic conditions through welfare programs such as creating self-employment opportunities, providing professional training, and providing social development to the people of the beneficiary families.

The PMD further said that this community kitchen is run with the help of the Gangaramaya temple donors, the triforces, the police, the Civil Security Department, and government agencies, as well as the International Lions Club, Rotary Club, and many private organizations, under the guidance of the Presidential Secretariat.

Senior Advisor to the President Ruwan Wijewardene, former Minister Daya Gamage, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence General Kamal Gunaratne (retired), Chief of Defence Staff General Shavendra Silva, Commanders of the three armed forces, Inspector General of Police, Director General of the Civil Security Department, Coordinating Secretary to the President Rajitha Abeygunasekara, Presidential Media Director W.M.K. Wijayabandara and other officials were present at the inauguration.

A Myanmar military court has sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to a further seven years in prison, taking her overall jail time to 33 years.

The country's former democratically-elected leader has been under house arrest since a military ousted her government in a coup in February 2021.

Since then she's faced 18 months of trials on 19 charges - which rights groups say are a sham.

The UN Security Council called for her release last week.

On Friday she was sentenced on the final five charges she faced. A court found her guilty of corruption because she had not followed regulations in renting a helicopter for a government minister.

She had already been convicted of 14 different crimes including breaching Covid public safety rules, importing walkie-talkies and violating the official secrets act.

Her trials this year have been set behind closed-doors where the public and media are barred access and her lawyers are also banned from speaking to journalists. She has denied all the charges against her.

The 77-year-old Nobel laureate has spent most of her time in detention under house arrest in the capital Nay Pyi Taw.

Ms Suu Kyi and many members of her party are among more than 16,600 people who have been arrested by the junta since they seized power - 13,000 remain in prison, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

Last week the UN Security Council called for an end to violence in Myanmar and the release of all political prisoners. China and Russia abstained from the vote and did not use their veto power following amendments to the resolution's wording.

Amnesty International has previously said the "relentless legal assault" on Ms Suu Kyi shows how the military has "weaponised the courts to bring politically motivated or farcical charges against opponents".

The military's violent seizure of power last February triggered widespread demonstrations, prompting Myanmar's military to crack down on pro-democracy protesters and activists.

It also triggered renewed internal fighting between separate ethnic rebel groups, a civilian force resisting the military and the junta rulers.

The junta has been accused of extrajudicial killings and launching airstrikes on civilian villages. It's estimated more than 2,600 people have been killed in the military's crackdown on dissent so far.

BBC

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron called on President Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Presidential Secretariat today (02).

The President’s Media Division (PMD) said that David Cameron is on a personal visit to Sri Lanka.

During a friendly discussion, Cameron extended his best wishes to President Wickremesinghe for the New Year.

The President’s Senior Adviser on National Security and President’s Chief of Staff, Sagala Ratnayake, the President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake, and the Director of International Affairs for the President were also present at this discussion.

The Criminal Investigations Department on Thursday (29) arrested the Former Chairman of the Student Union of the University of Peradeniya Anuradha Vidanage.

Sri Lanka Police said that he was arrested over the incident where the Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya, and his son were assaulted by a group.

The arrest was made opposite the Kandy Court Complex on Thursday (29) evening.

The current Chairman of the Student Union of the University of Peradeniya Chamid Sathsara said that the Former Chairman was arrested while returning from a legal matter in court.

We are looking at the New Year 2023 after having undergone the bleakest of times, immense hardships, as well as the uncertainties and hopelessness of the last year.

I understand the great burdens that are placed on all of us and the setbacks that a majority of us have suffered due to the country’s abject economic collapse. Yet I believe that we have already gone through the worst of these times. I sincerely appreciate all of you who are committed to our country first and I thank you for your patience and courage as we took the critical, initial steps to stabilise the economy.

Indeed, 2023 will be a critical year in which we plan to turn around the economy.

2023 is also the 75th year of independence from the British Empire. Looking back, it is obvious that we have not done as well as other ex-colonies. This is why the youth of our country are calling for a system change – especially at this juncture. This cannot be ignored.

Therefore, we must boldly implement the proposed social, economic and political reforms to build a prosperous and productive Sri Lanka in the coming decade.

I wish all of you a happy and peaceful new year!

Ranil Wickremesinghe

President

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Bangladesh’s capital now has its first metro rail, a Japanese-funded project that aims to ease commuting in one of the most congested cities in the world.

A section of the over 20-kilometer (12.427 miles) urban rail project, known as Line 6, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday.

The line connects the northern zone of Dhaka to a hub of government offices and hospitals in the middle for now. Eventually it will cut through the city to the financial district of Motijheel in the south.

While the project is likely to bring significant changes to how people travel in Dhaka, its inauguration will also give some much-needed political mileage to Hasina’s government. With elections expected in January 2024, the leader and her party are under pressure as the South Asian nation’s foreign currency reserves dwindle and it battles inflation and energy crises.

The metro rail “added another feather” to Bangladesh’s cap and is “another milestone in development,” Hasina said at the opening ceremony. She was the first passenger to ride the train amid tight security. The service will open to the public Thursday.

In Dhaka, with 10.3 million people packed in 305 square kilometers (117.76 square miles), the average driving speeds have dropped to less than 7 kilometers (4.3496 miles) an hour right now from 21 kilometers an hour 10 years ago. Given the current trends, a World Bank report has estimated it could drop as low as 4 kilometers an hour, slower than walking.

“It’s an extremely important development for a city like Dhaka,” Martín Rama, a consultant with the World Bank’s presidency and former regional chief economist for South Asia, said in an interview. “If you look at the case of India in many cities, it has changed a lot the way people go to work. It’s a safe means of transportation, for instance, for women, which in South Asia is not trivial.”

At the same time, Rama said it would be “naive to think that congestion problems will go away” immediately because every time a country builds public transport infrastructure and adds more capacity, 90-95% of the freed up road space is taken up by additional traffic.

Traffic congestion wastes about 3.2 million working hours each day and costs Bangladesh’s economy billions of dollars every year. Dhaka is the seventh least livable in a list of 172 cities in the world on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Livability Index for 2022.

“The bigger your city is, the more time you spend typically commuting,” said Rama. “So it’s a congestion cost that detracts from what the city has to offer.”

Bangladesh approved 219.85 billion taka ($2.1 billion) fund for the Line 6 project in 2012, with Japan providing 165.95 billion taka at the time. The cost later escalated to 334.72 billion taka as the authorities added a new section linking the metro rail to Kamalapur, the central railway station that connects Dhaka and the rest of the country.

Japan is also funding two other urban railway lines in Dhaka. When completed, three metro lines are projected to carry two million passengers daily, according to Japan International Cooperation Agency’s website.

The Dhaka metro rail follows six months after Hasina inaugurated the country’s longest river bridge, spanning over 6 kilometers over the Padma River. That is expected to connect 80 million people — half the country’s population — linking the southwest to the northeast.

Source: Bloomberg

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, 95, passed away on Saturday at 9:34 AM Vatican time in his residence at the Vatican's Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, the Vatican announced.

"Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has returned to the Father’s House," the Vatican said in a statement.

"As of Monday morning, 2 January 2023, the body of the Pope Emeritus will be in Saint Peter's Basilica so the faithful can bid farewell," the Vatican said.

Funeral arrangements would be notified in the next few hours, the Vatican said.

Pope Francis last Wednesday visited the ailing Pope Emeritus and asked Christians worldwide to pray for Benedict XVI.

The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope on 19th April 2005 on the death of Pope John Paul II, and served until 28th February 2013 when he became the first pope in 600 years to retire.

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe instructed the Nuwara Eliya District Secretary and Commissioner to immediately provide 30 acres of abandoned land adjacent to the Ambewela Farm to them and provide the necessary facilities to develop it as grazing land to meet the food requirement of the dairy cows.

President Wickremesinghe issued these instructions during an observation tour of the United Dairies Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd, which belongs to the Ambewela Farm Group.

The President commended the systematic growth achieved by the Ambewela Farm in the dairy production industry adding that it has set an example for other dairy farms as well. The President also instructed to open this farm for research activities for university students in the country to gain experience in the dairy farming field.

General Manager of the Ambewela Farm Group Sarath Bandara said that the Ambewela Farm is the main centre in Sri Lanka as well as in South Asia which can boast of the highest technical application in dairy production and farming technology.

Presently, there are about 1,000 dairy cows at the Ambewela Farm. All activities such as maintaining the dairy cows, providing necessary fodder, weighing, diagnosing diseases and separating them from others are done through an automated system. The cows are milked thrice a day and 40,000 litres of liquid milk is supplied to the market daily.

Around 4,500 cows are currently being fed within the entire Ambewela Farm network. While this institution was under the government before the establishment of the Ambewala Group in 2001, the daily milk production stood at a mere 1,500 litres.

The Ambewela Farm system has been working for the last 15 years to create the best dairy cows for Sri Lanka. Accordingly, none of these dairy cows is imported and only a very few male animals are imported once every few years.

Additionally, around one thousand indirect jobs have been created in the process of providing fodder for the animals on this farm. A mechanism is already in place to get the whole maize plant to the Ambewela Farm from the farmers after harvesting the crop. Accordingly, the Ambewela Farm has facilities to amass around 25,000 metric tons of maize plants annually and store them.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe also inspected the 30 acres of abandoned land in the vicinity of the Ambewela Farm which has been identified as suitable land for the cultivation of grass.

Source: PMD

ATM robberies have been reported in three main Southern cities of Sri Lanka.

According to the Police, a group has robbed the ATM machines of several banks in Karapitiya, Hikkaduwa, and Baddegama.

Nearly Rs. 11 million has been stolen by the group who are suspected to be foreigners.

The Police said Rs. 4.6 million, Rs. 275,000 and Rs. 5.7 million have been stolen from three seperate ATM machines.

The Police suspect that the robbery has been reportedly carried out via hacking the ATM software.

The Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) today briefed the media on future power plans for Sri Lanka.

The Minister was confident that the 8-hour-long power cuts predicted by some trade unions will not materialise if the requested power tariff increase is granted.

Following are the five key updates provided by the minister and the CEB;

Three shipments of coal for the Norochcholai coal power plant are expected to arrive on the 05th, 09th, and 16th of January 2023. All religious places of worship will be provided with a free-of-charge 05 KW solar power unit. The solar power unit will be provided under an Indian credit facility within around three months. Approval of the Attorney General granted to award the coal tender to an Indonesian company with a local partner. The coal tender has been awarded to the lowest bidder. CEB says electricity tariffs should be increased between 60% – 65%.