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10 years since the infamous "bond scam"
No full textThe 27th of February marks ten years since the infamous “bond scam” of 2015. This resulted in a forensic audit, completed in 2019, on activities of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) with regard to bond market auctions and irregular transactions of the EPF, which is Sri Lanka's largest superannuation fund that is also managed by the CBSL. This audit reports that the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) has suffered close to LKR 20 billion in losses from bond and equity market investments, with an additional LKR 19 billion in foregone earnings, as a result of bypassing due process and investing in unlisted equity
"ගංජාකාරයා" - මාධ්යට උචිත ද?
No full textThis entry includes a write-up and an infographic (both in Sinhala).On January 2, 2025, Lankadeepa newspaper published a report on the arrest of several individuals during a raid where a man was caught with marijuana. In the report the suspect is identified as "ganjakaraya" (ගංජාකාරයා) which is used to describe persons addicted to drugs and drug traffickers. Use of such derogatory terms in media reporting is discouraged as these terms can label and discriminate, resulting in stigmatisation of such individuals. In addition, the report also highlighted the arrest of women in the subheading when both women and men have been arrested over an offence, stereotyping women and assigning more blame to them. Media ethical guidelines recommend gender sensitive reporting, aiming to portray all genders fairly and without bias
වාර්ගිකත්වය අදාළ ද? අවශ්ය ද?
No full textThis entry includes a write-up and an infographic (both in Sinhala).On December 12, 2024, Dinamina newspaper reported an incident where a young woman working as a massage therapist at a spa was arrested for a monetary scam. In the report, her ethnicity is mentioned as "drawida tharuniya" (ද්රවිඩ තරුණිය) when irrelevant to the context of the news. This violated the media ethical guideline to not mention ethnicity of individuals when it is not relevant to the news and can contribute towards negative attitudes and stereotyping of those belonging to the same ethnicity
Presidents' Entitlements (Repeal) Bill - Voting Breakdown - Second Reading
No full textThis infographic is available in English and is published on the Manthri.lk Instagram page.On 10 September 2025, Parliament passed the Presidents’ Entitlements (Repeal) Bill. A division of votes was called for during the second reading of the Bill, which resulted in 151 votes in favour, and 1 against (Chamara Dasanayake from the New Democratic Front).
The Bill presented on 7 August 2025 by the Minister of Justice and National Integration, repeals the Presidents’ Entitlements Act of 1986, thereby abolishing the provision of official residences and monthly allowances to former Presidents, as well as monthly pensions and allowances to their widows
Sri Lanka Electricity (Amendment) Bill - Voting Breakdown - Second Reading
No full textThis infographic is available in English and is published on the Manthri.lk Instagram page.On 6 August 2025, Parliament held a vote on the Sri Lanka Electricity (Amendment) Bill during the second reading. The vote was passed with 121 votes in favour and 25 against.
This is a significant bill that replaces the National Electricity Advisory Council with a committee appointed by the Minister, and may also be reducing the independence of the regulator in tariff setting, among several other structural changes. Refer to the original act: https://www.parliament.lk/uploads/acts/gbills/english/6347.pdf. Moreover, refer to the amendment bill: https://documents.gov.lk/view/bills/2025/5/599-2025_E.pdf
to learn more on the amendments
Agriculture: Key NPP manifesto promises
No full textThis infographic was posted on the Public Finance Platform in English, Sinhala, Tamil and can be accessed from the link below.The NPP Presidential Election manifesto for 2024 outlines several new promises to address the existing challenges in the agricultural sector, including low production efficiency, high costs, and the decline of key export crops. It emphasizes the adoption of modern technologies, improved policy frameworks, and increased support for farmers to enhance productivity and reduce dependency on imports.
Many of these agricultural promises require funding through the national budget to be effectively implemented.
Here is the full list of such agriculture related promises,
- Establishing storage, cold storage, and processing units for agricultural products.
- A systematic agricultural insurance system for farmers.
- Restarting the Kantale sugar factory
- Financial support to establish 50,000 agricultural entrepreneurs.
- Financial facilities to encourage the use of rain guards for rubber plantations and to identify rubber lands not currently used for tapping and redirect them for rubber tapping.
- Providing loan schemes up to Rs. 1 million per hectare for cultivating high- yielding semi perennial or perennial crops with micro-irrigation.
- Providing performance-based incentives for agricultural extension officers.
- Establishing 7,500 dairy farms to empower low-income women.
- Establishing 7,500 dairy farms to strengthen youth entrepreneurship.
- Providing health insurance coverage for registered dairy cattle.
- Providing tax relief for livestock and other raw materials to ensure fair egg and poultry meat prices.
- Establishing 5,000 small-scale poultry farms
- A fund to promote the development of research on fishing and market activities.
- Provide a fuel subsidy to the fishing community to uplift the collapsed fisheries by reducing the production cost.
- Set up regional collection centers to promote exports.
- Introduce an insurance scheme for the fishing community.
- Re-activate the Fisherfolk pension scheme.
- Provide tax relief for imported tools until sufficient domestic production is developed
Weekly Air quality update: Week ending 02 August 2025
No full textThe infographics are available only in English. The research was conducted by Akshayvisnu Ramanathan and Anushan Kapilan, with the visualization created by Muaadh Himaz. For comprehensive details on this week’s air quality, refer to the following 'Related Source' link.This infographic displays the air quality in the cities of Badulla, Colombo 07, Puttalam, Pelawatte, Monaragala, Maharagama, Kiribathgoda and Kandy cities for the week of July 27 to August 2, 2025. It was developed under the airquality.lk assignment, to raise public awareness about the poor air quality in urban areas of Sri Lanka and to emphasize the importance of taking action to protect public health
Defense and public security: Key NPP manifesto promises
No full textThis infographic was posted on the Public Finance Platform in English, Sinhala, Tamil and can be accessed from the link below.The NPP's 2024 Presidential Election manifesto proposes several new promises to improve defense sector;
- A programme to provide housing to police officers who do not own a house
- Raising the salaries and allowances of the police service in proportion to other public servants
- Establishment of a separate Bureau for Narcotics Prevention
- Development of naval and air surveillance facilities and provide modern equipment and training to officials to prevent the entry of drugs into the country
2025 Vote on Account’s revenue gains may fall short of primary spending increase
No full textThis infographic was posted on the Public Finance Platform in English. It can be accessed from the link below,On 6 December, Parliament approved the 2025 Vote on Account, allocating funds for the first four months of the year.
For January to April 2025, primary expenditure—which includes both recurring and capital spending but excludes interest payments—is budgeted at LKR 1,425 billion. This breaks down into LKR 425 billion for capital projects and LKR 1,000 billion for recurrent expenses. The government expects revenue of LKR 1,600 billion, resulting in a primary balance (revenue minus primary expenditure) of LKR 175 billion.
Compared to 2024, both expenditure and revenue have increased significantly. Primary expenditure for 2025 is projected to be LKR 454 billion (47%) higher than the LKR 971 billion spent during an average four-month* period in 2024. However, revenue is expected to grow by only LKR 400 billion (33%). This indicates that the primary balance expected for 2025 could be lower than what is achieved in 2024, extrapolating from the first four months of revenue and expenditure budgeted in the vote on account
සර්වජන බලය සන්ධානයේ ගාලු ජන රැලිය සිංහල භාෂා පුවත් වාර්තා කළ ආකාරය
No full textThis entry includes a write-up and an infographic (both in Sinhala).On July 01, 2024, media reported that Dilith Jayaweera, entrepreneur and leader of the Sarvajana Balaya, attended a public rally in Galle on June 29, 2024. This infographic shows which Sinhala newspapers did and did not report the news. Only Aruna newspaper reported the news while Mawbima, Dinamina, Divaina, Lankadeepa, and Ada newspapers did not