Prisoner in quarantine dies in escape attempt at Kandy Bogambara prison

One prisoner was killed in Bogambara prison in Kandy last night. Five prisoners tried to escape and another prisoner was injured while one escaped, Prisons Commissioner-General Thushara Upuldeniya said. Prison officers have arrested two escapees, he said.

The deceased is identified as 30-year-old Abdul Raheem of Anuradhapura. He had succumbed to the injuries sustained due to the fall from the top of the prison wall, the Prisons Commissioner-General said. The other prisoner also sustained injuries due to fall, the official said. 

However, our studies on Sri Lanka's prisons indicate the prevalence of torture and brutality especially against the prisoners who attempt to escape. The incidents of prisoner deaths must be fairly investigated.

Update: The escaped prisoner was later arrested

Bogambara prison has been converted to a quarantine centre for the prisoners and over 400 prisoners undergo quarantine there. 

Over 500 prisoners in Sri Lanka are COVID-19 positive now. 

Bogambara prison and the land of five acres belonged to it in the heart of Kandy city was emptied from prisoners and the venue was transformed into a cultural and tourism centre named “Bogambara Cultural Park” by the previous government in 2019. 

According to Attractions in Sri Lanka website, "The Bogambara Prison was the second largest prison in Sri Lanka, the first being the Welikada Prison in Colombo. It was built by the British Ceylon Government in the year 1876. The prison complex has gallows and was one of the two prisons in Sri Lanka where the death penalty was implemented. The prison was closed down in 2014 and the building is open for public viewing as a historic monument. It is one of the oldest existing buildings in Kandy and located in Bogambara."

Budget 2021: Less money for health; more for roads. Fraudsters invited to pump hidden money

Opinion by Ajith Perakum Jayasinghe, Editor

In 2021 budget proposals, the Sri Lanka government invited the fraudulent businessmen to pump their hidden money to boost the ailing economy.  

"For the benefit of the country, I request all entrepreneurs to utilize the funds hidden locally or internationally in order to evade laws relating to taxes and foreign exchange. It is expected to make legal provisions to provide a tax pardon to entrepreneurs thus utilizing funds for any investment facilitated by this budget under the payment of taxes amounting to 1 per cent," Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said in the parliament today presenting the budget proposals in his capacity as the Minister of Finance. 

Early December 2019, after introducing sweeping tax reforms, cabinet spokesman Kaheliya Rambukwella expressed confidence on growth and fiscal management despite the Rs. 550 stimulus impact on the economy. “As promised, we have initiated some actions immediately after the election, which will ease the burdened general public by way of reducing taxation. The Government will lose about Rs. 550 billion worth of revenue annually by the reduction of taxes announced last week. Some are arguing on how the Government is going to compensate for the revenue loss with the tax cuts, and these taxes depend on the size of the economy. Right now our economy is at $80 billion, and if you apply 5% tax, you are still collecting $4 billion, so this simple theory will be practised by our experts in the financial sector,” as reported by Daily FT. 

The 2020 budget speech did not include any review on the policy changes made by the government as soon as they were elected but said that the same tax policy would be implemented. The government incurred massive loss of income and recorded minus growth in 2020. 

The government estimated the state revenue as Rs. 1,961 billion and expenditure as Rs. 3,525 billion.  The budget deficit is Rs. 1,564 billion which is 9% GDP. 

Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa proposed obtaining loans under an upper ceiling of Rs. 2,900 billion to balance 2021 budget. 

In 2020, Sri Lanka government has obtained Rs. 2,650 billion loans, even without the approval of the parliament for a part of it. 

The government is under severe criticism because of the allocation of more money for roadbuilding than health amidst the raging crisis of COVID-19. Sri Lanka government allocated Rs.159.57 billion for health, a slight amount more than the allocations in 2020, Rs. 159.48 billion. It is far below the allocations under the previous government for health which was Rs. 187 billion. 

Meanwhile, the government allocated Rs. 330 billion for the Ministry of Highways, nearly double the amount allocated in the 2019 budget, which was Rs. 176 billion. Road building is believed a highly corrupt business in Sri Lanka. Amazingly, road building amounted almost double the allocations for health amidst COVID-19.  

The government encouraged the foreign investors by exempting the tax on dividends of foreign companies for three years if such dividends are reinvested on the expansion of their businesses or in the stock market or in Sri Lanka International sovereign bonds.

"Investments exceeding USD 10 million with potential to change the landscape of the economy, in the areas of export industries, dairy, fabric, tourism, agricultural products, processing and information technology will be provided with concessions up to a maximum of 10 years under the Strategic Development Law," the government said. 

The budget proposals included, "In order to promote the Colombo and Hambanthota ports as commodity trading hubs in international trading, and to encourage investments in bonded warehouses and warehouses related to offshore business I propose to exempt such investments from all taxes." 

The government further encouraged the multinational companies by encouraging the exports of multinational companies which are import-based for requirements of the domestic market. "It is proposed to reduce the tax imposed on their dividends by 25 percent in 2021 and 50 percent in 2023 under the condition that they increase their exports by 30 percent and 50 percent in the respective years," the Prime Minister said.

"To develop the latent industries such as mineral sand, phosphate, fertilizer and graphite as high-value export industries, I propose to reduce the expenditure on research and development expenses of local entrepreneurs involved with the Institute of Nanotechnology from taxes," the Prime Minister stated in the budget speech. 

The government provided a seven-year tax break for local boat and shipbuilding. 

For the benefit of rural women, the government proposed, "to establish a shop in all Grama Niladhari divisions where the network of shops has been adequately expanded targeting 25,000 female entrepreneurs chosen from Samurdhi families. Under this network of shops functioning under government sponsorship and bank credit facilities, priority will be given to selling local products. Related expenditure of the local entrepreneurs who contribute to establishing these shops will be considered as deductible expenditures in the calculation of personal income tax." Thanks and implement at least this for small people. 

Wrong facts in budget speech checked

FactCheck (@factchecklka) pointed out that Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's budget speech included wrong facts about tax collection. 

The Prime Minister said, "Tax in place of the various goods and service taxes and levies, imposed under multiple laws and institutions on alcohol, cigarettes, Telecommunication, betting and gaming and vehicles, which accounts for 50 percent of the income from taxes and levies. It is expected through this reform to direct Institutions under special legislation such as the Excise Ordinance to have a more focused regulatory engagement in facilitating the government to secure its revenues otherwise lost through sale of illicit alcohol and cigarettes."

FactCheck pointed out "50% of total tax revenue would amount to Rs 867 billion in 2019; based on figures available to us, taxes collected on these goods and services amounted to less than Rs 500 billion, which is less than 30% of total tax revenue."

The Prime Minister proposed to introduce a special Goods and Services Tax for, alcohol, tobacco, gaming, telecommunications replacing several different taxes.

Sri Lanka's fisher community leader, MP Wedaarachchi encourages people to eat fish

Sri Lanka's major opposition MP Dilip Wedaarachchi ate raw fish today before media and urged people to eat fish to save fishermen. He said fish is safe despite COVID-19 and people must eat it at this difficult moment of the industry. Wedaarachchi said that he hailed from a family of fisher community leaders and knew how safe this nutritious food was.

"There are about 35-40 types of small fishing industries and 300,000 fishermen in the country. About 1.2 million people depend from this industry," Wedaarachchi pointed out highlighting they had lost their livelihood because the product could not be sold. 

"In Sri Lanka, there are 3500 multi-day vessels. About 1,650 of them catch tuna for exports. Around the country, there are about 900 Madel (big fish net) venues and 3,000 people depend on that industry alone. Sri Lanka has 1,200 million kilo capacity of cool rooms but they have not been properly maintained. The previous government allocated money but the then Minister of Fisheries Mahinda Amaraweera must answer to the question of what happened to the allocations," Wedaarachchi charged.

He urged the government to lease cool rooms from the private sector, to buy fish from the fisher community, to conduct scientific tests and make aware the public, to provide loans to the multi-day vessel owners who require over Rs. 500,000 worth supplies for the next trip and to provide Rs. 5,000 COVID-19 relief to small fishermen.  

He also urged the government not to allow the health officials in Negambo to disturb the drying of fish in the beach. 

A photo published by an MOH office in Sri Lanka

This photo was published by a Facebook Page named as MOH Office Pelmadulla of Sri Lanka's Rathnapura district. The description in the photo says that the covered corpse belongs to a man who arrived in a house in Sandasilugama, Ketethenna on November 16. 

He came on a bus from Peliyagoda, an area under the risk of COVID-19. The report said he had fallen in the compound of the house a few hours later and died. 

The text says that the body was sent to Rathnapural Teaching Hospital for PCR testing after a 'massive effort' with the support of the officials of Kahawatta police station. 

A wheelbarrow and few planks, probably a makeshift stretcher, are seen in the picture. 

Police officer's daughter crashes into Nanda Motors; son killed a police officer in 2019

An SUV vehicle that crashed into Nanda motors building in Colombo yesterday damaging the building and several vehicles in the showroom had been driven by a daughter of a senior police officer, reports say. 

The same police officer's son reportedly drove a Defender over the traffic OIC of Borella police station, Ananda Sagara Sarathchandra in February 2019 and fled. The severely injured police officer died later in March. 

The police officer's son was with politician Mahindananda Aluthgamage's son. The accident took place in wee hours while the group of young men were returning from a night club. The driver was remanded later. 

The relevant police officer Pradeep Ratnayake was Superintendent of Police of President's Security Division when his son was arrested suspected for killing a police officer. Reportedly, he is nos promoted as Senior Superintendent of Police and presently in charge of Nugegoda division.

(Photo from social media)

At least five students got all 200 marks for grade 5 scholarship

Sri Lanka's grade 5 scholarship examination results are out. The practical pass mark of this examination is around 85% in most districts of the country. 

In Sinhala medium, the cut off mark is 169 in Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Kandy, Matale, Galle and Matara districts.

At least five students have reportedly achieved all 200 marks in the examination.  

The highly competitive grade 5 scholarship examination provides an opportunity for the students who have not been privileged to enter into high-class public schools to be selected to those schools on merit basis.