Friday, November 22, 2013

The Maduru Oya Fiasco

By Rajan Hoole -November 22, 2013 |

Rajan Hoole

The Rise and Fall of the Tamil Militancy and the International Legal Implications of the Government’s Counter-Insurgency – Part 2

In the last chapter, we touched on the drive initiated by leading officials in the Mahaveli Authority pre-emptively to settle Sinhalese in the Maduru Oya Basin in the Batticaloa District. This area was to be developed under the Mahaveli Project. The story of this takes much of Herman Gunaratne’s book For a Sovereign State (FSS). The author should be complimented for an unusually frank narrative where he has been true to his perceptions. But after five years – roughly the period covered by the book – it was clear that his perceptions were in crisis. This was true of a large number in his class. What is particularly interesting about his book is that without being aware of it he tells us much about how leading Sinhalese politicians thought and operated.

The scholar-detectives of the Mahaveli Ministry, T.H. Karunatilleke and Hemapriya, found an eager disciple in Herman Gunaratne who on Dissanayake’s invitation took up the job of Additional General Manager, CECB. Karunatilleke was Director of Planning. The scholar-detectives saw no end of Tamil conspiracies during July 1983 and its aftermath. A particular discovery of Karunatilleke’s was that cunning Tamil surveyors in the Survey Department had been altering Sinhalese place names in the North-East to Tamil ones. One example was the supposed alteration of Kokkila to Kokkilai by adding an ‘i’. Had any one of them cared to look up the 1824 Census or books on Ceylon by Prideham or Tennant written in the first half of the 19th century before there were Tamil surveyors, they would have found the same names and even more Tamil names. They were capable of locating a Tamil menace under every bush and every stone, and went on to become the leading lights of Sri Lanka’s administrative bureaucracy.

Gamini Dissanayake was a sophisticated player who had use for such zealots in his power game. The prestigious and lucrative Mahaveli Authority placed him almost at the top of succession stakes. Reviving the ancient glories of the Sinhalese with foreign loans and putting the Tamils in their place was the stuff of the game.

The Rise and Fall of the Tamil Militancy and the International Legal Implications of the Government’s Counter-Insurgency – Part 1

Zuma silent on Sri Lankan human rights abuses

President Jacob Zuma's stance on local human rights abuses at the Commonwealth summit undermines SA's fight for justice, writes Ruki Fernando.

President Jacob Zuma at the 23rd Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka. (Reuters)

22 NOV 2013 00:00 RUKI FERNANDO

The Canadian and Mauritian heads of state boycotted the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting held in Sri Lanka earlier this month because of the host country's appalling human rights record. More than half the leaders of the 53 member states stayed away, making this the lowest turnout in the group's history.

Zuma Silent on Sri Lankan Human Rights Abuses by nelvely

INTERNATIONAL DAY TO END IMPUNITY - TEN FACES TO REMEMBER

FRIDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2013.

To mark International Day to End Impunity, which is being celebrated for the third year running on 23 November, Reporters Without Borders is publishing 10 portraits of journalists and bloggers whose murders have not been solved or have not led to the conviction of their perpetrators and instigators.

Acts of violence against journalists and other news providers are attacks not only on the victims themselves but also on freedom of expression, the right to inform and its corollary, the right to receive information. In the vast majority of cases, physical attacks on journalists and murders of journalist go completely unpunished.

Around 700 journalists have been killed in connection with their work in the past 10 years. In its2012 annual round-up, Reporters Without Borders condemned last year’s carnage of news providers, in which a total of 88 journalists and 47 citizen-journalists were killed.

This is devastating. The impunity enjoyed by those responsible for this bloodshed encourages them to continue violating human rights and freedom of information. And it creates a climate of fear and uncertainty for journalists that fosters self-censorship.

The ten portraits presented by Reporters Without Borders today try to put names and faces to these tragic statistics and to give an idea of the scale and form that impunity can take in these murders. Whether the victims of execution-style killings, car-bombs or death under torture, all these journalists and bloggers are now the victims of the same evil.

They were targeted for covering corruption or drug trafficking, criticizing government officials or intelligence agencies, or denouncing human rights abuses. Some cases have become emblematic, others are less known.

Those responsible take many different forms and include governments, armed groups and hired killers. Their murders resulted in total or partial impunity. Investigations were sometimes launched only to turn into smokescreens. In some cases, the perpetrators were arrested but instigators were not touched.

Read the portraits of:

Samir Kassir - Lebanon

Syed Saleem Shahzad - Pakistan

Lasantha Wickrematunga - Sri Lanka

Aníbal Barrow - Honduras

Guillermo Cano - Colombia

Norbert Zongo - Burkina Faso

Didace Namujimbo - Democratic Republic of Congo

Khadjimourad Kamalov - Daghestan (Russia)

Hrant Dink - Turkey

Sattar Beheshti - Iran

See other International Day to End Impunity initiatives on IFEX network website.

Response To “Cameron, Kudos For Your Trip To Jaffna”

By S. Sivathasan -November 22, 2013

S.Sivathasan

In a communication addressed to Prime Minister Cameron, by some Tamils purporting to be near and dear to Obama, it is said “You met with three TNA members, all three of whom live most of their time in Colombo. We regard all of them as too sympathetic to the Colombo government”. What a preposterous position for anyone to take! Political positions are taken by physical proximity of a community’s leaders to power centres!

It is further said “We wish you had been able to meet with elected representatives, who live in and represent the North East”. In saying so, is it suggested that the three leaders are unelected and therefore have no credentials to represent the people, to champion their cause or to speak up for them?

In what light is Cameron to treat this assertion? What is the message that the readership of Colombo Telegraph will inescapably glean from such misleading statements? Publishing it in the public domain is obviously designed to convey the idea that whatever the seeming togetherness of Tamils, know it on our authority, that they are riven into multiple splinters. They are located:

In the capital, Colombo
In the North
In the East

At the summit is an enclave in US, friendly to Obama. So Cameron, ignore this triumvirate and lend your ears to this caucus. So we, ‘Tamils for Obama’ are more legitimately placed to speak for the Tamils residing in Sri Lanka. How tenable is this usurpation?

What is the position, composition and nature of the TNA group? They are the top leadership of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). R. Sampanthan, handpicked 43 years ago by SJV Chelvanayakam, the respected Tamil leader, for a leadership position one day. He assumed the mantle a quarter century ago, has symbolized people’s aspirations and lived up to their expectations. He moved deftly among many a landmine and has brought the Tamils to where they are now. They have ceased to be voiceless and able spokesmen have surfaced.

Nick Cheeseman-November 20, 2013

At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka at the weekend, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that while his government ''deplores the use of torture, we accept that sometimes, in difficult circumstances, difficult things happen''.

His statement is not only legally and morally indefensible, it is also factually incorrect. Torture is prohibited under international law precisely because it is so reprehensible that no civilised society accepts it. The prohibition is absolute. Circumstances, no matter how difficult, can never be used to justify it.

But nor are the circumstances in Sri Lanka under which torture is used as difficult as the Prime Minister makes them out to be. In Sri Lanka, torture is most often used not in difficult circumstances but in routine police inquiries. It is endemic and pervasive precisely because it is used without regard for circumstances.

The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) in Hong Kong this year issued a 736-page report detailing more than 400 incidents of torture in Sri Lanka since 1998. Most pertain to ordinary criminal cases. They are from all parts of the island, not only areas directly affected by long-running civil war. The victims are both Sinhalese and Tamil. The stories are harrowing.

Sinnappan Kiragory was, in August 2006, arrested over a murder in Eheliyagoda, east of the country's capital, Colombo. Policemen assaulted him with clubs and jumped on his body in front of his wife and small children, who were with him at the time of the arrest. Two days later, he died in custody.

Policemen in Bandaragama, near Colombo, told a man accused of jewellery theft in May 2009 that they would make him ''vomit the truth''. They tied him to a pole between two boxes and swung him around it, while beating him and forcing ground chillies into his eyes. When the man's family came to the station, the police chased them away. They later forced the man to sign a document and charged him with a minor offence.

These cases are not a thing of the past. Because most cases of torture are not related to alleged terrorist acts or other events linked to the country's civil conflict, they have continued relentlessly since the end of the war.

More than 100 of the cases documented by the ALRC occurred after 2010. Police south of Colombo detained and tortured Sunil Shantha in 2010 in order to please an influential person who held a grudge against him.

They suspended him from the ceiling of their station and rubbed chopped chillies into his eyes and genitalia. Later they hung him horizontally from a pole and beat the soles of his feet, before releasing him without charge.

In 2011, police north of Colombo stripped a Muslim suspect and paraded him naked in front of men and women while jeering and yelling obscenities at him. He had tried to intervene on behalf of one of his brothers, who was already in custody and had reportedly been assaulted.

Their counterparts in the northern central province of Anuradhapura last year strung Thusitha Ratnayake from the ceiling of their premises and beat him about the spine, legs and heels to have him confess to the theft of a necklace.

Despite lodging complaints with various authorities, including the country's human rights commission, no action has been taken against the torturers.

The problem is not one of difficult circumstances but a lack of political will to address the incidence of torture. Creeping authoritarianism and militarisation in Sri Lanka have enabled its spread. Collapsed rule of law has meant that the courts and other institutions have also failed to halt it, despite the country having a domestic prohibition on torture since 1994.

Only a handful of police officers have ever been prosecuted for torture. Some have murdered their victims rather than have them testify. The government of Sri Lanka has increasingly rebuffed calls from international agencies and observers to give the law effect. Unfortunately, the Australian Prime Minister's position on torture and attendant abuses does nothing to improve the situation.

Rather, it encourages the spread of existing practices. It emboldens the Sri Lankan government to continue thumbing its nose at United Nations human rights bodies. It also undermines the legitimacy of the Australian government on questions of human rights, diminishing our voice on matters of great importance not only to people in Sri Lanka but to hundreds of millions of others in countries across Asia.

In his attempts to do everything and anything to stop boats of asylum seekers from reaching our shores, Abbott is playing a game with damaging consequences, both for this country's credibility, and for the human rights of Sri Lankans.

Dr Nick Cheesman is a research fellow at the department of political and social change in the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific.

Richard Hamer: Silence over Sri Lanka

Shona Robison kept quiet about the human rights record of the Sri Lankan regime headed by president Mahinda Rajapaksa while visiting Colombo. Picture: Michael Hughes

Friday 22nd November 2013

Scotland’s sports minister Shona Robison should have been as brave as David Cameron and spoken out against Sri Lanka’s appalling human rights record, writes Richard Hamer
THERE has been much talk of the legacy the 2014 Commonwealth Games will leave for the people of Glasgow and Scotland as a nation, but becoming a silent witness to war crimes was not the sort of thing we had in mind.

Richard Hamer Silence Over Sri Lanka by nelvely

Canada, Tamils, Muslims, Sinhalese and

Sri Lanka: A Special TV Ontario Online

Conversation Series

Posted by twnewsfeatures on 17 November 2013, 2:42 pm

The Agenda (A flagship current affairs program on TVOntario) with Steve Paikin and Daniel Kitts have focused all week on discussing Sri Lanka’s efforts to emerge from decades of civil war in a series of online conversations. They are as follows:

1.Sri Lanka: Human Rights Update (Fred Carver, the campaign director for The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice.)

2.Sri Lanka and Responsible Tourism | Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice

3.Sri Lanka: The Island Nation’s Muslims, with Fathima Cader

4.Sri Lanka: Harper, Tamils and Canadian Immigration Policies (Fathima Cader, who also spoke about Sri Lanka’s Muslims, shares her concerns over Canada’s treatment of Tamil refugees fleeing Sri Lanka.

5.Sri Lanka: Canada’s Sinhalese (Romesh Hettiarachchi and Prathap Perera

6.Sri Lanka: Canada’s Tamils (Bahi Kandavel, Vani Selvarajah, Siva Vimalachandran)

7.Sri Lanka: Postwar Tamil Activism in Canada | Amarnath Amarasingam, a postdoctoral fellow at York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies, who has researched the issue of Tamil activism in Canada.
Sri Lanka: A View From Britain

8.Last week, The Agenda did a series on the situation in Sri Lanka ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held there. We’ve gotten some reaction to the series, so we are hosting a series of follow up conversations.

In this video, Jan Jananayagam of the NGO Tamils Against Genocide Europe evaluates British Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to go to CHOGM and publicly raise the issue of human rights there, versus Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper decision not to attend CHOGM as a statement. She also talks about concerns over Sri Lanka’s human rights situation more broadly, and shares some of her thoughts on The Agenda’s coverage of the Sri Lanka issue.

Australian PM's conduct at CHOGM shameful: Bishop Pat Power

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 November 2013, 16:45 GMT]
As Australian media on Friday reported that 79 Tamil asylum seekers were being sent back to Colombo amidst the controversial ties between the Sri Lankan Government and the Australian Government were further exposed in ‘Sri Lanka CHOGM’ last week, Canberra-based retired Bishop Pat Power, long an outspoken critic of Rome, has criticised both the Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbot and the Catholic Church on the controversial Sri Lanka policy.

It could be argued that Australia should have followed the lead of Canada and India in boycotting CHOGM because of the manifest injustices still being perpetrated in Sri Lanka. But once part of the meeting, it is shameful to see Prime Minister Tony Abbott pretending that everything in the garden is rosy, Bishop Pat Power has said noting that Mr Abbott wanted to use CHOGM as an opportunity to join with his Sri Lankan counterpart in planning joint strategies to stem the tide of refugees fleeing to Australia.

In an article published in Ballarat Courier on Friday, Bishop Power also said: “The Catholic Church is having to face up to the consequences of having turned a blind eye for 40 years or more to all kinds of abuse within its ranks. As a result, the suffering of the innocents continued far longer than it should have.”

“I hope that this shameful episode in my church's history will have powerful lessons in relation to the politics of denial,” Bishop Pat Power said.

“There is no doubt the Tamil Tigers were at times guilty of criminal behaviour during the civil war, but to brand the whole Tamil population with that broad brush is similar to the tactic employed by the Israeli authorities in blackening the name of innocent Palestinians while practising all kinds of injustices against that minority people,” Bishop Power said.

“All my sources tell me that countless innocent citizens are still being subjected to a reign of terror, with every effort being made by the government to prevent the media reporting the atrocities.”

The David Cameron “Walk Out”: The refusal to speak as political action

22 NOVEMBER 2013

BY VIHANGA PERERA

The refusal to interact should not be marked as a simple act of “cowardice”. This would be the misreading of a self-congratulatory Sri Lankan press and polity; for David Cameron and the UK — unlike what Muttiah Muralitharan claims — have NOT “misread” the ground situation in Sri Lanka. Cameron had a right not to co-operate to a journalistic lobby. It is a choice granted to him by the democratic codes that govern social play. The watchdogs of the (sic) “nation” who ram Cameron for his “walk out” are merely “upset” that their stocked vent was not spent. It should not be mistaken with “absence of democracy” on Cameron’s part.

The David Cameron “Walk Out” The refusal to speak as political action by nelvely

Were The Commonwealth Leaders Too Judgmental ?

By R.M.B Senanayake -November 22, 2013

R.M.B. Senanayake

Ever since Jesus refused to pass judgment on the woman caught in adultery and who was produced before him and he instead, asked those of her accusers who were without sin to cast the first stone, people have been saying that those who are guilty of an offence themselves have no right to pass judgment on others. The President echoed those views when he toldDavid Cameron that those in glass houses should not cast stones. He also quoted a Pali stanza “Na paresaa vilomani – na paresam katakatamAttanova avkkheyya – katani akatani ca” which was interpreted to mean that a person should be concerned with his own actions rather than of others. The implication is that the British should mind their own business and look to their own wrongful actions. The British resorted to brutal methods to suppress the 1848 Rebellion in the Uva, laying waste vast tracts of arable land- a scorched earth policy. They showed similar brutality in suppressing the Indian mutiny in 1857.

But the world has changed since then. The UN Declarations have accepted the need to protect human rights and International Law such as the revised Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, do not permit ethnic cleansing, war crimes etc. even where there is civil war. So the UN has set up institutions such as the Human Rights Council and the International War Crimes Tribunal. The tolerance level of crimes against humanity has changed in the world community of people. Even after 50 years Bangladesh is prosecuting those who committed humanitarian violations during the war waged by Pakistan against East Bengal , a part of its territory. The Khmer Rouge are being prosecuted in Cambodia. Kenya’s former leaders are to be hauled before the ICC.

The campaign for justice is being driven by the victims and their supporters. So it is the Tamil Diaspora that is driving this campaign against the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. Since many of them are citizens in the Western countries they are pressurizing these governments to take up the need for an international inquiry. But the first call is on the government of the country and it is only if they fail to hold an independent inquiry that there is space for the UN to step in. But what is equally important is to compensate the victims- restorative justice. Have we provided restorative justice? If we have not, we need to provide compensation for the victims.

‘UK PM’s Lanka visit counterproductive’

Raising questions about the effectiveness of the visit by UK Prime Minister David Cameron to Sri Lanka, India said that such energetic moves may not work in ‘South Asian context’ and instead could be ‘counterproductive’.

“It is not our style to do what he did,” said a highly-placed source on Thursday, when questioned about the much-reported remarks and travels of David Cameron to Colombo and Jaffna.

It was questionable, indicated the source, whether Cameron’s statements would make any difference in persuading Colombo to make a vigorous probe into human rights violations by security forces or in devolution of power.

Obliquely criticising the UK Prime Minister, the source asserted, “You can ask what is more effective in the South Asian context,” adding that such actions can be ‘counterproductive’.

It was emphasised that when India ‘makes a point’, it may be missed by outside observers but its interlocutors understand it.

While MEA had wanted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit CHOGM, the source said that Prime Minister not going is not a reflection on strength of bilateral relations.

When asked if there was too much importance given to regional sentiment, the source countered, “tell me one country where foreign policy is not shaped by domestic policy -- not a single country where domestic imperatives matter”.

On whether India lost leverage over Sri Lanka by Singh not attending CHOGM, it was pointed that there were ‘levers and levers’.

“A lot of them are just at the process of engagement. The very fact that External Affairs Minister did go to Colombo despite protests is appreciated there (in Colombo),” said the source.

Despite the looming shadow of China, it was pointed out that geography kept both countries talking to each other. “In same way, India cannot wish away Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka can’t wish away India,” the source said.

President presents development budget

* Rs 1,500-7,800 for public workers

* Rs. 7,500 for veterinary surgeons

* Rs. 1,000 mn for farmer pension scheme

* Five holiday bungalows for artistes

* 15 pc upfront tax on lands leased to foreigners

* USD 150 mn to SriLankan and USD 50 mn to Mihin Lanka

* A donation of 50,000 MT of rice to WFP

* Telecom levy fixed at 25 pct

* 20,000 high quality cows to be imported

November 21, 2013, 12:00 pm -by Saman Indrajith

President Presents Development Budget by nelvely

UNP on Budget 2014

By Ashwin Hemmathagama-November 22, 2013
Our Lobby Correspondent
Tissa Attanayake
The Budget deficit has been narrowed by cutting down school uniforms and the fertilizer subsidy. These promises are unrealistic. The reload tax and the supermarket taxes are pushing the public from the frying pan to the fire. This is nothing more than a CHOGM tax. Knowing what is going to happen we kept away from the Budget speech.
Ravi Karunanayake

This is a Budget that will further promulgate Government inefficiency and bankruptcy. There are no benefits extended from Budget 2014. It is nothing more than a plan that continues to rip you off. The Government lacks clear vision and direction leading to a debt crisis. All in all there is a 16% decrease in the income the Government expects to collect. So, the fertiliser subsidy is reduced by 49% for the first nine months. The subsidy given for school uniforms and textbooks is reduced by 29%. This is how they maintain the budget deficit.
Dr. Harsha de Silva
There is a big disparity between what people expected from the Government and what was given in Budget 2014. This Budget didn’t increase the salaries but an allowance was given of Rs. 1,500. On the other hand the tax on potatoes, onion, and dhal has been increased. If you put a mobile phone reload worth Rs. 100, out of which you can take calls worth of Rs. 75 and

the remaining is taken by the Rajapaksa Government as tax. The super market tax will also make life difficult for the ordinary people.
Gayantha Karunathilaka
Budget 2014 is a dream, lengthier than a carpet but full of false promises. We will continue to debate highlighting the unfavourable factors in it.
Ajith Mannapperuma
The indirect taxes will continue to rip-off the consumer. This is nothing more than what we saw last year, which allocated funds to ministries but respective fund transfers were held back.
Ajith P. Perera

The inflation is 9.8%. If state employee is receiving a salary of Rs. 15,000 the inflation reduces purchasing power by Rs. 1,500 But the Government is giving the state employees an allowance of Rs. 1,200. The deficit remains Rs. 300. Private sector employees were not considered in this Budget.
John Amaratunga
The essential food items will go up. The trade unions were looking for Rs. 10,000 increase but nothing was given in return. I don’t know how long this Government could continue to mislead the public. There is no point of having a large Cabinet and extended panel of ministers. They are useless just like this Government.

While opposition stages boycott against President’s budget speech ‘mapilla snake’ caught in opposition leader’s parliament room

(Lanka-e-News-21.Nov.2013,11.30PM) Today when the opposition was boycotting the budget speech of the President in Parliament , a ‘le mapilla snake' had been detected in the official room in Parliament of opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. Grave doubts are being entertained that this is a conspiracy to seriously harm the opposition leader.

The opposition leader had informed the employees this noon that the internet facility in his computer is not functioning . A woman employee who tried to put it right was unsuccessful . As a result the assistance of the Parliament computer division had been sought. A youth from the Parliament IT division when he was trying to rectify the fault , had attempted to clear the waste paper bin that was near the chair of the opposition leader. The le mapilla had been remaining covered by the bin. This snake that was about one and half feet long had been very energetic . The employees of the opposition leader who arrived , had killed the snake and put in a bottle. The opposition leader had to be in another nearby room until the internet was put in order.

After the incident , the Parliament secretary , speaker and the sergeant at arms had appeared on the scene . This snake could not have crept in on its own and it is clear that someone had brought it and put in the room of the opposition leader , witnesses say. The supporting reasons are :

The office of the opposition leader is in the third floor of the Parliament. Hence there is no mapilla in the world that would climb three stairs in search of the opposition leader’s room. What is most noteworthy is : today being the day of the President’s budget speech , and as he was arriving in Parliament , every security measure was taken by the President’s security division (PSD). Even a vehicle of M .P s were not allowed to be parked in the parliament garage . This morning firstly police dogs were used by the STF and every part of the building inspected. Again the PSD dogs were employed for another search inch by inch..

It is to be noted that the opposition leader’s room too was included in this search . The dogs that were used to search even the flower vases could not detect the mapilla in the opposition leader’s room is most strange. Even a stray dog barks unendingly at a small serpent. Therefore how come a trained police dog could not sniff the presence of a mapilla . They should have in fact barked much more with the training they have been given.

Moreover , a week ago the opposition leader’s table and furniture were polished.

Even the opposition leader found it difficult to be in the room due to the polish smell which is so intense. In other words a mapilla could not have been in the room for weeks enduring that smell. In addition , when the mapilla was detected it never showed signs that it had been starving for it was so energetic , and immediately reacted.

It is significant to note that this is the first time the opposition staged a boycott against President’s budget speech after he became the President, and it was the opposition leader who spearheaded this.

Recently the opposition leader’s vehicle was targeted for attack. His vehicle shutters were broken , and attempts were made to harm him. That was launched by Rajapakse cronies and directly on President’s instructions . The attackers were security soldiers in civil attire.

In the circumstances , this mapilla scenario is no laughing matter or just an ordinary threat akin to a serpent creeping into a house. Someone had certainly brought in that serpent with most deadly motives. In that case who had done this? Surely it must have been by a serpent in human clothing or a group of them.

Govt. borrowings to reach Rs. 516.1 Bn

* Foreign Financing Rs. 235.5 Bn, Domestic 280.6 Bn
* Revenue to expand to Rs. 1,437.4 Bn, expenditure expand to Rs. 1,985.6 Bn

November 21, 2013, 7:23 pm

According to the Budget 2014 presented to parliament yesterday the government expects total deficit financing at Rs. 516.1 billion next year. Foreign financing is expected to reach Rs. 235.5 billion, while domestic financing would be Rs. 280.6 billion.

The foreign gross-borrowings according to 2014 budget estimates would reach Rs. 331.5 billion next year, up from Rs 247.1 billion this year. The government would borrow 234 billion from foreign funds and 97.5 billion foreign commercials.

Domestic non-banking borrowings is expected to reduce to Rs. 280.6 billion from Rs. 359.3 billion this year, bank borrowings by the government would reduce to Rs. 100 billion from 201.4 billion. Foreign investment in T-Bills and T-Bonds also is expected to reduce to Rs. 51.3 billion from 53.2 billion.

The total revenue of the government is expected to increase to 1,437.4 billion from 1,183.1 billion this year, while grants would reach Rs. 32 billion, up from Rs. 20 billion.

Tax revenue is expected to be Rs. 1,274.6 billion in 2014, up from Rs. 1052.2 billion this year, non tax revenue to reach Rs. 32 billion from 20 billion.

The total expenditure, according to the Budget 2014 would increase to Rs. 1,985.6 billion from Rs. 1712.4 billion this year.

Revenue, after several years of deficits is expected to have Rs. 109.2 billion surplus next year.

The budget deficit is expected to contact to 5.2 percent from 5.8 percent this year at Rs. 516.1 billion. -MA

Tax Break For Louis Vitton Products Must Be For Benefit Of Rajapaksa Family Members: Harsha

November 22, 2013

UNP Economic Affairs Spokesman Harsha De Silva yesterday issued a scathing criticism of the Government’s 2014 budget, saying it catered to Georgio Armani wearing super rich classes of people in the country while placing the entire tax burden on the poor man.

Dr Harsha de Silva MP

Reacting to yesterday’s Budget presented by the President in Parliament, De Silva said that the Government had inexplicably decided to remove import duties on designer brands like Louis Vitton, Georgio Armani and Salvadore Ferragano.

“A member of the royal family recently told a local newspaper that he only wears Louis Vitton belts and shoes – each of these cost USD 600 or USD 1200 at minimum – the tax waiver must be for their benefit,” the UNP MP charged in a reference to President Rajapaksa’s youngest son, Rohitha Rajapaksa’s pronouncements inan interview with the Daily Mirror a few months ago.

The Government had increased taxes on salt, sugar, dhal and the salmon tin, directly affecting the common man, de Silva said.

“Who asked the Government to reduce taxes on designer brands? How many of us wear Ferragano ties and Hugo Boss perfume? Why would we care if these products are taxed?” he asked.

De Silva said that the people had been begging for relief to be able to afford their food items, but the Government had effectively slapped them in the face.

“This is a budget for casino kings, it is completely anti-people,” he explained.

The UNP MP said that the Government’s economic policy was classic crony capitalism.