SRI LANKA NEWS IN BRIEF – SEPTEMBER 2018 – Compiled by Victor Melder
Wildlife officials will be armed with Russian-made Kalashnikov AK 47 assault rifles under a Rs. 42 million project to protect elephants from poachers and to save human lives in the human-elephant conflict, the Cabinet has decided. These weapons, more sophisticated than the standard issue of Chinese-made T-56 assault rifles, are to be bought on a recommendation by Sustainable Development, Wildlife and Regional Development Minister, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka. The total number of AK 47s to be imported is 2,568. Field Marshal Fonseka’s Deputy Minister, Palitha Thevarapperuma, told the Sunday Times that the purchase of assault rifles would be connected with the human-elephant conflict, caused mainly as a result of people encroaching into the jungle habitats of elephants. “At present wildllife officials are reluctant to intervene when civilians and elephants are threatened,” he said. The proposal is for the purchase of 1,500 firearms this year, each valued at Rs.16,000 with the total cost at Rs. 24 million. Next year, 1,068 weapons, each valued at Rs. 17,000 would be bought at a cost of Rs. 18 million. Of these, 2,334 firearms will be issued to small maintenance groups at wildlife parks, while 234 will be issued to Assistant Rangers. The new proposal envisages the construction of a 2,651 km long electric fence in places identified as having elephant threats. This will be connected to the existing electric fence of about 4,349 km. The Deputy Minister said they had identified the cadre requirements of around 1,000 new personnel for the Wildlife Department, including 20 veterinary surgeons, 117 wildlife rangers, 234 assistant rangers, 234, wildlife guards, 19 development officers, 150 heavy machinery operators and 200 drivers. He said they would also deploy Civil Defence Force personnel and maintenance officers for around-the-clock surveillance.
In the past five years, some 375 people have died in incidents related to the human-elephant conflict, with 1,177 elephant deaths and 5,800 instances of property damages also being reported. (Sunday Times, 2.9.2018).
The five carcasses of the elephants that were found in the Mahaweli marshes in Polonnaruwa have been removed by the Department of Wildlife to carry out a post-mortem. The post-mortem is to be held at the Giritale Wildlife Training Centre. According to environmentalist sources, the five elephants had become bogged down in a marshy area near a tributary of the Mahaweli River in the Periyaaru region in Polonnaruwa. The group of elephants included calves and a tusker. Sources say that both tusks of the tusker had been removed by poachers.. Environmentalists assert they are awaiting the report of the post-mortem to ascertain whether foul play was involved in the death of these elephants. The initial discovery had been made by a fisherman who had alerted authorities on 28 August of an elephant calf that had been entrapped in the swamp. The bodies of four other elephants had surfaced on Saturday, bringing the total body count to five. (Daily Financial Times, 3.9.2018)
Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka rose 4.9% year-on-year in August, government data showed on Thursday. Tourist arrivals for the first eight months of the year rose 12.5% from the same period last year. The Government slashed its target for tourist arrivals and revenue for this year after a record 2017, citing anti-Muslim violence and an outbreak of dengue fever. Tourism Minister John Amaratunga in April said 2.5 million tourists were expected, down from an earlier estimate of 3 million, generating $ 4 billion in revenue. Tourism accounts for nearly 5% of Sri Lanka’s $ 87 billion economy. In March, the Government declared a state of emergency in the central district of Kandy after a riot in which mosques and Muslim homes and businesses were destroyed. Tourist arrivals rose 3.2% to 2.1 million last year. Tourism revenues rose by a similar percentage to an all-time peak of $ 3.63 billion. (Daily Financial Times, 7.9.2018)
An agreement for the supply of 160 passenger coaches to Sri Lanka Railways under concessional financing was signed between India’s RITES Limited and the Government on Friday, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said. The USD 82.64 million contract agreement was signed by RITES Director Mukesh Rathore and Transport Ministry Secretary G.S. Withanage. The passenger coaches will be custom-made in India to suit the requirements of Sri Lanka Railways. The agreement follows a US$ 318 million Line of Credit (LoC) Agreement signed between EXIM Bank of India and the Government of Sri Lanka in June last year in Colombo for the procurement of railway rolling stock and upgradation of rail tracks. The rolling stock includes six DMUs, 10 locomotives, 20 container carrier wagons and 30 fuel tank wagons. RITES Ltd. will supply the DMUs and locomotives, while Texmaco Rail & Engineering Ltd. will supply the wagons. India has already completed projects close to US$ 1 billion under concessional financing in the railways sector in Sri Lanka, the High Commission said.(Sunday Times, 9.9.2018)
Sri Lanka has injected 10.5 billion rupees of newly minted money for two weeks at a weighted average yield of 8.00 percent through a term reverse repo auction 50 basis points below the ceiling policy rate despite currency pressure. On September 11 the central bank injected 9.2 billion rupees at 8.09 percent for two weeks ending September 26 through a term reverse repo auction. On September 12 another 12.5 billion rupees were injected for two weeks ending September 27. The rupee hit 162.85/163.00 to the US dollar on Monday.Printed money from the central bank allows banks to give credit without raising deposits from the real economy, generating an excess of dollar outflows over inflows. The printed money can also be used to buy bonds from exiting foreign investors at lower rates than if new money was not available, giving them more profits and liquidity to exit. Due to the newly minted money, a bank does not have to stop domestic credit to buy a bond, but can do both. However injecting money for two weeks puts some pressure on banks to raise deposits than purchasing Treasury bills outright and permanently injecting cash in to the credit system to generate a permanent ‘balance of payments deficit’ in the ensuing weeks. Analysts who closely track the central bank have said that in times of currency pressure, cash should only be injected overnight at the highest ceiling rate so that banks are under pressure to raise deposits every day at 8.5 percent. Then a balance of payments crisis does not develop. (Sunday Island, 16.9.2018)
The Sri Lankan rupee today recorded the highest deprecation of Rs.166.64 selling price for US dollar. According to the foreign exchange rates issued by the Central Bank, the selling price of US dollar is Rs.166.64 while the buying price is shown as Rs. 163.10.(Daily Mirror, 18.9.2018)
Rebel UPFA MP S.B. Dissanayake has reiterated that the army executed some LTTE personnel including one-time LTTE Eastern Commander Thambiraja Thurairajasingham aka Ramesh after they surrendered to the advancing troops. The declaration was made in response to a media query at the residence of former Deputy Speaker and National List MP Tilanga Sumathipala last week. Although, MP Dilan Perera tried to intervene on several occasions, Dissanayake, a Cabinet member of the previous Rajapaksa administration said that the media, too, were aware of some of those executed after they had surrendered though they remained silent. “Both you and we don’t talk about those who had been executed,” the National List MP said. Dissanayake and Perera are members of 15 member rebel group that quit the government after having voted for a No faith motion moved by the Joint Opposition in April 2018 against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe over treasury bond scams perpetrated in 2015 and 2016. Dissanayake revealed that he knew Ramesh and received a telephone call from him about ten minutes before he surrendered to the Army on the Vanni east front. The unexpected statement was made close on the heels of President Maithripala Sirisena revealing move to take up accountability issue at the forthcoming UNGA in New York. Dissanayake said that the Army may have killed some surrendered persons but Prabhakaran killed more than hundred times than that. Towards the end of the conflict, Prabhakaran behaved in a very brutal manner towards his own people. Ramesh, who served him after Karuna switched sides was subsequently detained by Prabhakaran and was about to be shot by the LTTE when he escaped and surrendered to the Army. (Daily Island, 18.9.2018)
Three elephants including a young calf were killed after a herd was hit by the Batticaloa bound train while the elephants were walking across the tracks, the Railway Control Room said. They said the elephants were knocked down by the train with oil tank wagons at 4.30a.m at the 126-mile post between Habarana and Palugaswewa Railway stations. The train engine and two oil tank wagons were derailed and one tank wagon had developed a leak, the control room said. Train operations have been limited up to Maho and Gal Oya due to the derailment.(Daily Mirror, 18.9.2018)
More than 700,000 people have been affected by the drought in 16 districts and the government has taken many measures to provide relief to them, the Disaster Management Centre ((DMC) says Jaffna District has borne the brunt of the drought with more than 370,000 people affected. In the East, Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts were also affected by dry weather. The water levels in all major reservoirs in the Ampara District have dropped drastically. The water level of the Senanayake Samudraya in Inginiyagala has dropped to 34 feet, the lowest since 1976. Over 50,000 people have been affected by dry weather in the North Central Province, and the drought has affected over 19,000 families in six Divisional Secretariat Divisions in the Puttalam District. The DMC said measures had been taken to distribute water through bowsers to all affected people. Chilie cultivation in the Hambantota District has been severely affected by the drought. Chilies have been grown to a large extent in areas such as Weeraketiya, Kasagala and Ranna. The government has allocated Rs. 200 million for the construction of agro wells for cultivation in dry zone areas. Padaviya and Vilachchiya villages, too, have been severely affected due to the drought affecting the Anuradhapura District. Twenty wells are to be constructed to meet the water requirements of the people in these areas. (Daily Island, 18.9.2018)
The Government will seek a loan of one billion US dollars from the Exim Bank of China for what could easily be the costliest project in Sri Lanka – the building of an 88 kilometre rail track from Kurunegala to Habarana. The construction work is to be awarded to the China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSEC) and will be part of President Maithripala Sirisena’s “Let’s Awaken Polonnaruwa” programme. Ministers were to discuss a memorandum by Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva at their meeting last Tuesday. However, it has been delayed until the observations of the Finance Ministry are received. In an earlier Cabinet memorandum recommending the project, President Sirisena noted that the construction of railways “linking the principal commercial towns” was being recommended as major and priority requirements. However, experts in the transport sector hold a different view. One of them pointed out that a railway line from Kurunegala to Maho junction now exists. The distance from this junction to Palugaswewa just near Habarana is only is ten kilometres. The track is designed to pass through jungle. Moreover, they point out that according to Sri Lanka Railways, the routes from Maho Junction to Trincomalee and Batticaloa have the least passenger revenue and freight income. The Central Environmental Authority has already given approval for the project. Transport Minister de Silva has said: “According to the design, the total length of the track from Kurunegala to Habarana via Dambulla is 88 kilometres with an additional four kilometres double track to the Dambulla Economic Centre. There are six main stations located at Ibbagamuwa, Melsiripura, Galewala, Dambulla, Sigiriya (Inamaluwa) and Habarana with sub-stations to be constructed at Thorayaya, Gokarella. Halkiriyagma and Digampathana.” The Transport Minister added: “Three tunnels are to be constructed at Ibbagamuwa, Polgolla and Omaragolla and several bridges, viaducts, overpasses and underpasses are also designed to be constructed at several locations, one underpass for providing an ‘elephant crossing.’…..”. Minister de Silva has called upon the Cabinet to “declare this as a special project and allow exemption from payment of VAT, NBT, Customs duties and other taxes…” (Sunday Observer, 23.9.2018)
Headline Inflation, as measured by the change in the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI, 2013=100), which is compiled by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS), decreased to 2.5 per cent in August 2018 from 3.4 per cent in July 2018, on year-on-year basis, mainly driven by monthly decline in Food prices in August 2018. The change in the NCPI measured on an annual average basis decreased from 5.1 per cent in July 2018 to 4.7 per cent in August 2018. When the monthly change is considered, the NCPI decreased from 126.6 index points in July 2018 to 125.4 index points in August 2018 largely due to decline in prices of the items in the Food category, particularly that of vegetables, coconuts, green chillies and fresh fish. Meanwhile, price increases were observed in the sub-categories in the Non-food category, particularly that of petrol, diesel and taxi in the Transport sub-category; some items in the Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels; Furnishing, Household equipment and household maintenance; and Alcoholic beverages and Tobacco. The NCPI Core inflation, which reflects the underlying inflation in the economy, increased to 2.7 per cent in August 2018 from 2.3 per cent in July 2018 on year-on-year basis. Meanwhile, annual average NCPI Core inflation declined to 2.5 per cent in August 2018 from 2.7 per cent in July 2018. (Daily Island, 25.9.2018)
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said that the government will have to slash imports by US$ 500 million to US$ 1 billion by imposing duties on some sectors because of current economic constraints due to strengthening of the US dollar. He added that industrial production in the US has increased causing rapid development. “The relief measures granted to US citizens by President Donald Trump had enabled them to purchase more goods and increased the profits of US companies. “Interest rates in the United States have been increased lately. This has encouraged the investors to pump more funds into that county,” the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister added that those who invested in the Sri Lankan Stock Exchange had also pulled out US$ 400 million. “It is obvious that any businessman will invest in markets where the returns are high”, he said The Prime Minister was speaking at the opening of D.S.Senanayake housing project in Hambantota yesterday. He asked former President Mahinda Rajapaska who was also Finance Minister as to why the rupee had depreciated against dollar from Rs.113.90 to Rs.132.55 within four months when there was no global economic crisis as such. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar had been caused due to the previous government’s short sighted policy of securing commercial loans running into billions at higher interest rates. Premier Wickremesinghe added that the prices of petroleum products are soaring in the global market due to US sanctions on Oil imports from Iran and Russia adding that Sri Lanka is concerned on two simultaneous issues-the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar and soaring prices of petroleum products in the global market. “This has affected other countries, the Euro, Malaysian Ringgit, Philippines Peso, Indian Rupee and our rupee had gone down in value. Some countries have increased their interest rates. He said that our importers have to spend more dollars to purchase goods from foreign countries and our exporters won’t bring money to the country at this moment and would wait till the right time comes to make more profits.(Daily News, 25.9.2018)
The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Board of Directors has approved a $300 million loan to help in the construction of about 5.3 kilometers (km) of elevated toll highway with related facilities between the New Kelani Bridge (NKB) and Galle Face in central Colombo in Sri Lanka, a statement from the global bank said. The new highway is expected to ease traffic congestion, improve connectivity, and facilitate trade logistics in the country. “Improved connectivity and infrastructure development are essential if Sri Lanka is to reach its potential as a trade and logistics hub in South Asia,” said ADB Senior Transport Specialist for South Asia Mr. Kanzo Nakai. “The new highway will help provide a direct link to the city center and the port from the Colombo–Katunayake Expressway through the NKB, improving connectivity and contributing to growth.” In 2016, the port of Colombo handled about 1.3 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of gateway container cargo, which could double to 2.5 million TEUs in 2030 as Sri Lanka continues to grow. The port, however, is only serviced by a four-lane, ground-level access road passing through its main gate, which intersects with Baseline Road, one of the busiest trunk roads in Colombo. This leads to serious traffic congestion in the city and holds back trade and mobility. The 5.3-km elevated toll highway to be built as part of the South Asian Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Port Access Elevated Highway Project will include related road facilities including an advanced electronic toll collection (ETC) system, which will eventually be installed on the entire expressway network. The project will also upgrade 1.4 km of the ground-level port access road from four to six lanes, while a maritime facilitation center will be constructed to provide better services to port users and relocate and gather the administrative and operational functions of the port, many of which will be affected by the construction of the elevated highway. The project also contributes to regional connectivity and trade, in line with SASEC’s goals. Additionally, ADB will provide a $500,000 technical assistance for the Expressway Operations Improvement component of the project, which will strengthen the operational capacity of the expressway regarding its toll rate policy and the ETC system. The Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, financed by the Government of Japan, will also provide a $1.25 million grant to support trade logistics facilitation for customs modernization. The total cost of the project is $360.2 million, with the Government of Sri Lanka contributing $60.2 million. The project is expected to be completed by mid-2025. ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members—48 from the region. In 2017, ADB operations totaled $32.2 billion, including $11.9 billion in co-financing. (Times on line, 28.9.2018)
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