Category: Breaking News

The leader of Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church on Friday praised a Supreme Court decision to order the former president and four officials to pay compensation for the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed more than 260 people.

The civil case brought by families of the victims charged that lax security led to the attacks which targeted three churches and three luxury hotels.

The church itself was not party to the lawsuit. But Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith told reporters he hoped the case would be escalated against former president Maithripala Sirisena and his top security officials.

“Based on this verdict we expect this case to be taken forward,” Cardinal Ranjith said. “Justice for the victims will only happen when the entire truth comes out. This decision is just a milestone in that journey.”

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered Sirisena, his police chief, two senior intelligence officials and a senior defence ministry official to pay a total of LKR 310 million (about $850,000) from their personal funds as compensation to the families of the victims of the bombings who had brought the civil case before the court.

The court said the former president and his officials had failed to prevent the attacks, among the worst in Sri Lanka’s turbulent history.

Several tourists were also killed and more than 500 people wounded, mostly belonging to the island’s minority Christian community.

Sirisena and the others involved in the case have made no public comment on the ruling and he did not respond to Reuters requests for reaction.

In November, Sri Lanka put on trial 24 men accused of carrying out the attacks. Police filed over 23,000 charges against those suspects, including conspiring to murder, aiding and abetting the attacks, and collecting arms and ammunition.

The group includes Mohammad Naufer, who officials say masterminded the attacks and is linked to Islamic State.

Source: Reuters

Former Minister and Northern province Governor Reginald Cooray has passed away after a sudden illness.

He was 75 years old at the time of his demise.

Sri Lanka Freedom Party Kalutara District organizer and former Chief Minister of Western Province was taken to hospital yesterday (12th) after suffering a sudden heart attack during a meeting at a hotel in Wadduwa.

The former Chief Minister has been admitted to Panadura Base Hospital and since his condition was serious, steps have been taken to transfer him to Kalutara Teaching Hospital by ambulance.

It was reported that the discussions have taken place regarding the upcoming local government elections and the selection of candidates.

He has served as a Member of Parliament for Kalutara District and has held several ministerial portfolios.

State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe says that significant intervention of the IMF and other multilateral lending institutions is necessary to restore the economy of countries like Sri Lanka.

Addressing the ‘Voice of Global South Summit’ of the G20 Finance Ministers’ session on behalf of President Ranil Wickramasinghe, the State Minister of Finance explained the steps taken for the economic stability of the country and to overcome the current economic crisis.

The Minister has said that significant progress has been made in the ongoing International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout process with the signing of the staff level agreement.

However, the Minister has noted that Sri Lanka is yet to receive financial assurances from its bilateral partners and as a result, has not been able to secure the IMF Executive Board’s approval and the delay is a taking a toll on the lives of the people.

“But we are confident of securing the approvals with the assistance of our partners. However, with this uncertainty surrounding technical concerns and the delay in the much vital approval is taking a heavy toll on the people of Sri Lanka.”

He has further indicated that Sri Lanka expects that the final step of this process will happen soon through mutual understanding.

Meanwhile, with the onset of the crisis situation, Sri Lanka has initiated a number of financial and fiscal sector reforms including the implementation of a progressive tax reform package to achieve fiscal consolidation.

Minister Semasinghe emphasized that for rebuilding and strengthening Sri Lanka’s reserves, the current situation requires the IMF and the other multilateral development organizations to considerably intervene to support fragile and small economies like Sri Lanka.

He said the government’s primary focus is to finance vital socioeconomic infrastructure and the supply of public utilities, both of which are essential for economic development. Several initiatives have been started to create a favorable climate for increased private sector investments in public infrastructure.

Speaking of the reforms, Minister Semasinghe said the National Agency for Public Private Partnership has already established two specialized divisions focused on state owned enterprise reforms and public private partnerships. As a result, restructuring largescale enterprises such as public utilities, transportation and manufacturing are currently being considered. These measures will help to save a noticeable amount of resources that are incurred annually to sustain loss of comparatively lower revenue making entities.

Moving forward, the need for a closely coordinated planning and budgeting framework has been identified as a key for making public investments in the country, the Minister disclosed.

“We have not been able to reasonably assess the impact of public investments, especially with borrowed funds, and its impact on the country’s debt sustainability. Hence, the proposed framework will carefully examine and enable a realistic assessment on investments that are identified for implementation, particularly when using borrowed funds,” he said.

The talks between several Tamil political parties in Sri Lanka with President Ranil Wickremesinghe have been postponed indefinitely. The group including the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) were set to engage in a marathon round of talks with Wickremesinghe commencing yesterday and continuing till 13 January.

Instead, the parties have submitted three demands to President Wickremesinghe calling on him to provide solutions to these within a week’s time. They are demanding the full implementation of the 13th amendment to the constitution, the release of all lands belonging to Tamils in the North and East occupied by the military or other government agencies and the release of all Tamil political prisoners.

However, the talks have now been indefinitely postponed as the President is yet to respond to these demands. According to TNA party insiders, the President has assured them he will provide a response within one week and therefore the meeting was postponed till that time.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded the National Long-Term Ratings of 10 Sri Lankan banks, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT) and Sri Lanka-based Lakdhanavi Limited.

Accrdingly, Fitch Ratings has downgraded the National Long-Term Ratings of 10 Sri Lankan banks following the recent sovereign downgrade and recalibration of the agency’s Sri Lankan national rating scale.

The recalibration is to reflect changes in the relative creditworthiness among Sri Lankan issuers following Fitch’s downgrade of Sri Lanka’s Long-Term Local Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘CC’ from ‘CCC’/Under Criteria Observation on 1 December 2022. Fitch typically does not assign Outlooks or apply modifiers to sovereigns with a rating of ‘CCC+’ or below.

National scale ratings are a risk ranking of issuers in a particular market designed to help local investors differentiate risk. Sri Lanka’s national scale ratings are denoted by the unique identifier ‘(lka)’. Fitch adds this identifier to reflect the unique nature of the Sri Lankan national scale. National scales are not comparable with Fitch’s international rating scales or with other countries’ national rating scales.

The National Ratings of the Sri Lankan banks consider their creditworthiness relative to other issuers in the country. The recalibration of the Sri Lankan National Rating scale has resulted in downgrades of the National Long-Term Ratings of the following banks:

Bank of Ceylon (BOC) to ‘A(lka)’/Rating Watch Negative (RWN) from ‘AA-(lka)’/RWN

People’s Bank (Sri Lanka) (PB) to ‘A(lka)’/RWN from ‘AA-(lka)’/RWN

Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC (CB) to ‘A(lka)’/RWN from ‘AA-(lka)’/RWN

Hatton National Bank PLC (HNB) to ‘A(lka)’/RWN from ‘AA-(lka)’/RWN

Sampath Bank PLC (Sampath) to ‘A(lka)’/RWN from ‘AA-(lka)’/RWN

Cargills Bank Limited (CBL) to ‘A(lka)’/RWN from ‘A+(lka)’/RWN

DFCC Bank PLC (DFCC) to ‘A-(lka)’/RWN from ‘A+(lka)’/RWN

National Development Bank PLC (NDB) to ‘A-(lka)’/RWN from ‘A(lka)’/RWN

Seylan Bank PLC (Seylan) to ‘A-(lka)’/RWN from ‘A(lka)’/RWN

Nations Trust Bank PLC (NTB) to ‘A-(lka)’/RWN from ‘A(lka)’/RWN

A full list of ratings is at the end of this commentary.

Other Sri Lankan banks’ national ratings, which are not mentioned in this commentary, have not been affected by the recalibration exercise.

Also, Fitch Ratings has downgraded Ceylon Electricity Board’s (CEB) National Long-Term Rating to ‘B(lka)’ from ‘AA-(lka)’. The Outlook is Stable. Fitch has simultaneously downgraded the National Long-Term Rating of CEB’s outstanding senior unsecured debentures to ‘B(lka)’, from ‘AA-(lka)’.

The rating action follows the downgrade of the Sri Lankan sovereign’s Long-Term Local-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘CC’ from ‘CCC’ on 1 December 2022, and the subsequent recalibration of Sri Lanka’s National Rating scale to reflect changes in the relative creditworthiness among the country’s issuers.

CEB’s ratings are equalised with that of its parent, the Sri Lankan sovereign, in line with Fitch’s Government-Related Entities (GRE) Rating Criteria. This is based on our assessment of a very strong likelihood of support from the state. CEB is the country’s monopoly electricity transmitter and distributor and accounts for around 75% of power generation.

Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings has downgraded Sri Lanka-based Lakdhanavi Limited’s National Long-Term Rating to ‘A(lka)’, from ‘AA-(lka)’. The Outlook is Stable.

The downgrade follows Fitch’s downgrade of the Sri Lankan sovereign’s Long-Term Local Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘CC’ from ‘CCC’ in December 2022, and the recalibration of our Sri Lankan National Rating scale to reflect changes in the relative creditworthiness among the country’s issuers. For details, see “Fitch Downgrades Sri Lanka’s Long-Term Local-Currency IDR to ‘CC’; Affirms ‘RD’ Foreign-Currency IDR” and “Fitch Ratings Recalibrates Sri Lanka’s National Rating Scale”.

The rating action reflects the heightened counterparty risk stemming from Lakdhanavi’s key counterparty – Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). Fitch downgraded CEB’s National Long-Term Rating to ‘B(lka)’/Stable from ‘AA-(lka)’/Stable on 12 January following the downgrade of the parent, the Sri Lankan sovereign’s Long-Term Local-Currency IDR.

Further, Fitch Ratings has downgraded Sri Lanka Telecom PLC’s (SLT) National Long-Term Rating to ‘A(Ika)’ from AA-(lka). The Outlook is Stable. Fitch has also downgraded the National Long-Term Rating on SLT’s senior unsecured debentures to ‘A(lka)’ from ‘AA-(lka)’.

The rating action follows the downgrade of the Sri Lankan sovereign’s Long-Term Local-Currency Issuer Default Rating to ‘CC’ from ‘CCC’ in December 2022, and the subsequent recalibration of our Sri Lankan National Rating scale to reflect changes in the relative creditworthiness among the country’s issuers.

SLT’s ratings are influenced by parent Sri Lankan sovereign’s weak credit profile, under Fitch’s Parent and Subsidiary Linkage (PSL) Rating Criteria. SLT’s Standalone Credit Profile (SCP) is stronger than that of the state, reflecting the company’s market leadership in fixed-line services and second-largest share in mobile, its ownership of an extensive optical fibre network and a strong financial profile.

The Treasury has agreed to provide the funds necessary for the election without any disruption, said the Commissioner General of Elections on Thursday (12).

Commissioner General of Elections Saman Sri Ratnayake speaking to News 1st said officials from the Treasury were summoned to the National Election Commission on Wednesday (11) to make inquiries regarding the views that were being expressed claiming that the funds for the election will not be available.

The Treasury officials have noted that as the election is a constitutional matter, the funds will be provided without any disruption.

The Chairman of the Election Commission and its members, the Commissioner General of Elections, and the Chief Financial Controller of Election had also attended this meeting.