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Discussing Defence in Parliament
No full textThis infographic is available in English and Sinhala.This infographic shows the analysis on allocation for the Defence sector and the parliamentary discussion on the topic of Defence. According to the analysis, the budget allocations for the Defence is considerably higher than the allocations for Education and Health. The top 5 MPs who contributed most to discuss about Defence related matters in the Parliament are Sarath Weerasekara - SLPP, Sarath Fonseka - SJB, Kanchana Wijesekara - SLPP, Premanath C. Dolawatte - SLPP and Ranjith Madduma Bandara- SJB
උතුරු නැගෙනහිර හර්තාල්, මේ පිළිබඳව වාර්තා කළ සහ වාර්තා නොකළ රූපවාහිනී පුවත් විකාශ
No full textThis entry includes a write-up and an infographic (both in Sinhala).On April 25th 2023, the government media outlets Rupavahini and ITN did not report on a hartal/strike that took place in the northeast province in protest against the government's proposed anti-terrorism act on their prime-time news broadcasts. Meanwhile, private media outlets such as Sirasa, Hiru, Derana, Swarnavahini, and Siyatha reported on the hartal during their prime-time news broadcasts. This shows the government-owned media's bias towards the government and is against the media's ethical guidelines
Verité Research Debt Update - December 2023
Get PDF10p. The Verité Research Debt Update provides a regular update for investors, policy makers and analysts, on the latest developments in this space together with commentary and analysis on Sri Lanka’s path to resolving its economic crisis since suspending debt repayment in April 2022. Contributions to this issue were given by Raj Rajakulendran, Harshana Wickramaarachchi, Emaad Rizwan, Chathuni Pabasara, Charini Senanayake and Shalomi Liyanage.This issue provides coverage on Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring and progress on the IMF program. This issue also includes analysis on the 2024 Budget and the need for improved governance for sustainable economic recovery. The key developments discussed are ; 1) The Official Creditor Committee for Sri Lanka issued a letter of assurance on 29 November 2023. It enables Sri Lanka to meet some of the criteria set for receiving the second tranche of financing under its current IMF programme. The tranche was originally expected in September but is now anticipated in December. However, the communication does not constitute a substantive agreement on debt restructuring terms; 2) In contrast to the highly unstable macroeconomic conditions of 2022, characterised by soaring inflation and currency depreciation of approximately 60%, 2023 has seen significant stabilisation, particularly in the monetary sector. Inflation and currency depreciation are projected to remain below 3% for the year; 3) Sri Lanka has proposed a budget for 2024, that is broadly in line with its IMF programme targets. It requires the treasury to increase revenue by 45% from the 2023 level. There is very heavy dependence on an increased value-added tax (VAT) — from 15% to 18%— with reduced exemptions, to achieve that target (see Exhibit 3). However, Sri Lanka has never met a budgeted revenue target in the last 23 years (see Exhibit 2); 4) The timeline goal posts have shifted in Sri Lanka’s external debt restructuring. Expectations have now been pushed to the first quarter of 2024, from the original expectation of mid-2023 (see Exhibit 5); and 5) There has been an extraordinary delay in the disbursement of the second tranche of IMF funding to Sri Lanka. It signals significant weaknesses in Sri Lanka’s ability to deliver on the commitments, and meet the expected timelines, in the current IMF programme (see Exhibit 6)
Contribution in Parliament - September 2023
No full textThis infographic is available in English, Sinhala and Tamil.This infographic shows the overall contribution of MPs in 9th parliament in September 2023. As per the analysis, 170 MPs contributed to parliament proceedings at least once whereas 55 MPs did not contribute at all during September 2023. This infographic indicates 5 most active MPs of the month. Further, the 8 MPs those who have significantly improved their performance during September 2023 compared to August 2023 are also highlighted in this infographic. Those MPs are Rishad Bathiudeen, Sudharshana Denipitiya, Wajira Abewardhana, Nalin Fernando, Sivanesathurai Santhirakanthan, Gayashan Nawananda, Kapila Athukorala and Manjula Dissanayake
Will the budget's veil of secrecy be lifted in 2024?
No full textThese infographics were presented at the mid-year assessment of Budget 2023 press conference and are on the Public Finance Platform in all three languages: English, Sinhala and Tamil.The lack of transparency on the implementation progress of proposals in budget speeches has increased sharply in 2022 and 2023, according to a systematic evaluation conducted by Verité Research.
The government – on average – did not disclose information to assess progress of 70% of the expenditure proposals in 2022 and 2023, up from 45% between 2017-2021. This means the information was not disclosed proactively online, nor in response to the right to information requests filed
The Debt Digest - March 2023
Get PDF3p. This article was published by the Daily Mirror as an opinion column in print and is also available online at https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/The-Debt-Digest-March-2023/172-255924.The Debt Digest by Verité Research provides analytical commentary on the latest developments in Sri Lanka’s debt crisis. A key milestone in Sri Lanka’s path to recovery was the staff-level agreement with the IMF in September 2022 that outlined a necessary path of fiscal policy to regain macroeconomic stability and access to international credit markets. Sri Lanka is expected to obtain board level agreement with the IMF on 20th March 2023, 200 days after the staff-level agreement was reached. The agreement is for an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) that will provide 2.9 billion USD in foreign reserves support over four years. The present commentary looks at two recent developments: (1) the increase in Sri Lanka’s debt in 2022 based on the latest figures published by the Ministry of Public Finance, and (2) the letters of assurance received from a set of international sovereign bondholders and several of the major bilateral creditors
Large Scale Infrastructure Small Scale Disclosure
No full textThis infographic was posted on the Public Finance Platform in English, Sinhala and Tamil.Despite the Right to Information (RTI) Act’s proactive disclosure requirement, only 18% and 25% of information required to be disclosed on large-scale infrastructure projects were proactively disclosed online in 2022 and 2023 respectively
"මෙහෙකාරිය" ද? ගෘහ සේවිකාව ද?
No full textThis entry includes a write-up and an infographic (both in Sinhala).On May 22, 2023, Lankadeepa, Aruna, and Divaina newspapers reported on the death of a domestic worker held in police custody. All three newspapers used the outdated and derogatory term "Mehekariya" (මෙහෙකාරිය) in the report. Usage of such derogatory terms in media reporting is indicative of backward master-servant relationship and can contribute towards the loss of dignity for those who are engaged in domestic work
Suspended for two weeks - Parliamentary Report card: Sanath Nishantha
No full textThis infographic is available in English and Sinhala.This infographic is created as a response to the suspension of SLPP MP Sanath Nishantha from parliament for two weeks over his disorderly conduct in parliament. This report card shows the contribution of MP Sanath Nishantha (SLPP) in 8th and 9th parliaments. It is based on analysis of Hansard data from September 2015 to February 2020 and August 2020 to September 2023. This includes overall rank (164/225 ;194/225), district rank (6/8; 6/8) attendance in parliament sittings (249/414; 239/296), total number of productive interventions he made in parliament (32,36) and topics which were discussed most by him in parliament i.e., Natural Resources and Environment, Economy and Finance, Urban planning, Infrastructure and Transportation, Agriculture, Plantations, Livestock and Fisheries
Sri Lanka met 29 IMF commitments and failed 3 by end-May 2023
No full textThese infographics were posted on the Public Finance Platform and are in all three languages: English, Sinhala and Tamil.Sri Lanka had met 29 of the 100 trackable commitments of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme and had failed on three as of the end of May 2023. Two of the failed commitments relate to revenue. The first is to increase tax revenue to 2.1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or Rs. 650 billion, by March 2023. Total government tax revenue was only Rs. 578 billion in the first quarter of 2023. The second commitment is to increase the tax rates pertaining to the Betting and Gaming Levy in line with aMay 30 tax proposal. This involves increasing the annual levy on gaming to LKR 500 million, the annual levy on betting carried through agents to Rs. 5 million, the annual levy on betting carried using live telecasting to Rs. 1 million, the annual levy on betting carried without live telecasting to Rs. 75,000 and the levy on gross collection to 15%. A bill was published on the 4th of April but an amendment to the act has not been made