Category: Daily Financial Times

Digital Mobility Solutions Lanka PLC (PickMe) yesterday said it has generated Rs. 22 billion in income for its network of independent driver and merchant earners during the first quarter of FY2026/27, up 50% from a year earlier.

The platform contributed Rs. 773 million in national taxes during the quarter, maintaining strong operational momentum despite temporary fuel supply disruptions stemming from the Middle Eastern conflict.

The company reported revenue of Rs. 2.5 billion for the quarter, a 40% increase from Rs. 1.8 billion recorded in the corresponding period last year. Despite fuel rationing and the operational challenges experienced during the quarter, revenue growth was driven by a 40% year-on-year increase in average monthly unique consumers, an all-time high during the quarter, reflecting the continued expansion of PickMe’s marketplace ecosystem.

This growth translated into a 43% year-on-year increase in total platform movements, while Gross Transaction Value (GTV), the total value of trips and deliveries facilitated through the platform, increased 48% year-on-year to Rs. 25.3 billion from Rs. 17 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.

Over 85% of this value flowed directly to PickMe’s network of independent drivers and merchant earners, highlighting the platform’s growing role in creating livelihoods, supporting entrepreneurship and enabling digital commerce across Sri Lanka.

Chairman Ajit Gunewardene said the results reflect the broader economic value created through the platform’s continued expansion.

‘These results represent far more than business growth. Every transaction facilitated through PickMe creates income for drivers, business for merchants and greater convenience for consumers, generating meaningful economic value across the country. That is where the real significance lies: not in what the platform earned, but in what it enabled others to earn. As the marketplace grows, sustaining and widening that contribution is the responsibility we carry.’

While year-on-year growth remained strong, the company noted that sequential performance moderated from the exceptionally strong fourth quarter of FY2025/26, which has historically been PickMe’s strongest quarter due to seasonal demand.

Net revenue eased by 1%, primarily due to fuel supply constraints and quota-related disruptions that temporarily affected driver availability. Higher fuel prices also weighed on consumer affordability, contributing to softer trip volumes during the quarter. Nevertheless, average monthly unique consumers continued to grow by 3% quarter-on-quarter, demonstrating the resilience of customer engagement despite the temporary market disruption.

Founder/CEO Jiffry Zulfer said PickMe’s long-term focus remains on expanding the value created across its marketplace rather than simply growing the platform itself. ‘Every quarter of growth on the platform translates into more earning opportunities for our driver earners, more business for merchants and greater convenience for millions of Sri Lankans. That multiplier effect is what drives our investment strategy. We will continue strengthening supply-side reliability, investing in technology and expanding our regional presence so that the value created by the platform reaches even more people and communities across the country.’

Net profit for the quarter increased 45% year-on-year to Rs. 631 million from Rs. 437 million in the corresponding period of the previous financial year. Sequentially net profit moderated by 10% compared with the record fourth quarter of FY2025/26, reflecting softer marketplace volumes, higher IT infrastructure and subscription costs, and the impact of currency depreciation. The company stated that the result demonstrates the resilience of its operating model despite temporary external disruptions.

PickMe said it has evolved beyond a mobility platform into one of Sri Lanka’s largest digital marketplaces, connecting millions of consumers with a growing network of independent drivers and merchant earners. By facilitating transportation, deliveries and digital commerce at scale, the platform continues to generate significant economic value while supporting livelihoods, small businesses and the country’s ongoing digital transformation.

The Cabinet of Ministers on Monday approved the allocation of land to 23 investors across 13 regional industrial estates on 35-year lease agreements, paving the way for new manufacturing and industrial ventures with a combined investment of over Rs. 2.8 billion and the creation of 870 direct jobs.

The decision forms part of the Government’s regional industrial estate development program, implemented by the Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Ministry to promote balanced industrialisation and expand economic opportunities beyond the country’s main urban centres.

‘The regional industrial estate development program focuses on identifying suitable land, developing essential infrastructure and allocating industrial plots to qualified investors to facilitate the establishment of new enterprises,’ Cabinet Spokesman and Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa announced the decision at the weekly post-Cabinet meeting media briefing yesterday.

He said the investment proposals were assessed under the regional investment initiative through a multi-stage evaluation process.

The Regional Industrial Service Committee, established under the Industrial Promotion Act No. 46 of 1990, together with the Project Evaluation Committee of the Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Ministry, recommended the allocation of land for the 23 projects after evaluating the proposals.

The proposal to this effect was submitted by Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Minister Sunil Handunneththi.

Kaspersky recently hosted KasperskySecure: Live in Sri Lanka, bringing together 80 to 90 security leaders, bankers and technology partners in Colombo for an evening built around a single question. Once a threat has been spotted, how quickly can an organisation actually respond to it.

The event was held at Cinnamon Life Hotel on 16 July.

The evening opened with a look at the evolving cyber threat landscape in Sri Lanka, led by Kaspersky Marketing Manager – SEA and AEC Elizabeth Shen, alongside Kaspersky, Sri Lanka Territory Channel Manager – AEC Mohnissh Manukulasuriya.

Shen walked attendees through a worldwide malware landscape that keeps expanding, with new unique malware samples detected daily climbing from around 340,000 in 2019 to roughly 500,000 in 2025, most of it low and medium complexity cybercrime rather than sophisticated targeted attacks. Shen also pointed to a run of recent incidents showing how far the fallout from a single breach can travel, from the Handala campaign, to the Jaguar Land Rover breach.

Safe Project Ltd., CEO Faizan Marikkar then gave a short introduction to Kaspersky’s presence in Sri Lanka, along with his outlook on what lies ahead given the current threat landscape. Safe Project Ltd., Systems Engineer and OSMP and XDR solutions expert Milindan Nimesh, then took attendees deeper into the platform’s Open Single Management Platform and XDR Expert capabilities. A pre-recorded demonstration led by Nimesh showed how uniting visibility and response improves mean time to detect, mean time to respond and an analyst team’s daily workload, while cutting the false positives that drive alert fatigue.

The program then moved into building a unified security operations strategy, led by Mohnissh Manukulasuriya. He set out a Security Operations Centre as resting on three pillars, people, process and technology, and walked through the respective roles of SIEM as the visibility layer and XDR as the response layer. He introduced Kaspersky Next, offered across EDR Foundations, EDR Optimum and XDR Expert tiers, bringing endpoint detection, threat intelligence, managed detection and response, and network detection together under one platform with more than 300 integrations out of the box, before taking attendees through a deeper technical walkthrough of how a modern SOC actually comes together on Kaspersky’s platform, including how its Managed Detection and Response service uses AI to cut false positives by around 30% and speed up triage, giving security teams unified visibility and expert-backed support without adding headcount.

‘Sri Lankan businesses are digitising faster than ever, and that is a good thing, but it also means the attack surface keeps growing. What we see again and again is not a lack of tools. It is a lack of integration. Teams have visibility in one place and the ability to respond in another, and attackers exploit exactly that gap,’ said Manukulasuriya.

The evening’s fireside chat, Driving Cyber Resilience as a Business Priority in Sri Lanka, brought together Mohnissh Manukulasuriya, Safe Project Ltd., Chief Technology Officer Mithila Perera and South Asian Technologies Ltd., Chief Technical Strategy Officer Shabeer Shiyam. The panel discussed how Sri Lanka’s threat landscape is shifting, including the growing role of AI on both the attack and defence sides, shared what security approaches are actually working on the ground, and unpacked the country’s evolving compliance landscape, from CBSL’s new incident reporting requirements to the Data Protection Act and the upcoming Cyber Security Act. The conversation closed on a central question for financial institutions: whether ticking the compliance box is enough, or whether real protection demands more.

Kaspersky’s presence in Sri Lanka reflects a broader regional commitment to enterprise SOC transformation, drawing on nearly three decades of company history and a global network of over 17,500 partners and 200,000 corporate clients, as local security teams look to close the gap between seeing a threat and acting on it.

The Cabinet has approved a proposal to increase the retirement age of judges by two years, paving the way for a constitutional amendment to be presented to Parliament.

The proposal, which has drawn opposition from the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), senior members of the legal fraternity and Opposition political parties, now requires parliamentary approval.

As the measure entails an amendment to the Constitution, it must secure a two-thirds majority in Parliament. The Government currently commands the numbers required to pass the amendment.

By questioning whether directors holding multiple board appointments can devote sufficient time to each company and whether so-called independent directors are genuinely independent, LYNEAR Wealth Management Co-Founder and Managing Director Dr. Naveen Gunawardane delivered a pointed message to Sri Lanka’s boardrooms, warning that both issues have become decisive considerations for institutional investors.

Addressing the Sri Lanka Corporate Director Summit 2026: ‘Future-Ready Sri Lankan Directors,’ he said investors increasingly assess who sits on a board, how they perform their role, and whether they protect minority shareholders before considering valuation.

‘I have a sneaky feeling that some of the comments I may end up stepping on a few toes this morning,’ Dr. Gunawardane told directors before outlining what institutional investors expect from corporate boards.

LYNEAR Wealth Management is a respected firm with a solid reputation serving institutional and private clients, including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, insurance funds, corporates, high-net-worth individuals, and even retail investors with its unit trust funds.

Dr. Gunawardane questioned the growing practice of directors serving on numerous boards.

‘One interesting thing that we see, and this appears to be true particularly in the Sri Lankan context, is that people end up serving on multiple boards and sometimes I wonder how they actually find the time,’ he said.

Although multiple appointments may expose directors to different sectors and broader economic developments, he said institutional investors view excessive board commitments as a warning sign.

‘When we see people serving on multiple boards, for us that is a negative, because that calls into question the time commitment that the individual can make to that particular board, particularly to the board of the company that we are investing in,’ he said. ‘It calls into question the effectiveness of the director and the contribution of the director to that company.’

Dr. Gunawardane said directors should ask themselves whether they are making a meaningful contribution to every board on which they serve.

”Am I in far too many boards? Am I contributing enough to the boards on which I am on? Particularly to the boards of companies which are operating in a sector that I may not be that familiar with?’ If the answer to that latter question is a no, or maybe perhaps you may want to reconsider the number of board positions,’ he said.

He identified board independence as another area attracting close investor scrutiny, arguing that institutional investors look beyond regulatory definitions.

‘Are independent directors truly independent or are they just friends and family?’ he asked. ‘Now this is a huge point for us institutional investors.’

Dr. Gunawardane said independence carries particular significance in companies dominated by controlling shareholders, where independent directors have a responsibility to challenge decisions and safeguard minority investors.

‘The board of a company should be able to balance competing demands of the company and independent directors therefore have a huge responsibility in ensuring and safeguarding the interests of minority shareholders,’ Dr. Gunawardane said. ‘They have an obligation to scrutinise closely the decisions that are made, and in particular, decisions related to third-party transactions.’

He said investors examine not only the number of independent directors but also who they are and whether they are prepared to exercise independent judgement.

‘Are you truly independent or are you just an independent director by name who happens to be on the board simply because your friend owns or runs a company?’ he asked. ‘If you’re not doing that, then I would argue that you’re not truly an independent director. Certainly not from the perspective of an institutional investor and certainly not from the perspective of minority investors.’

Dr. Gunawardane also urged Boards to place greater emphasis on expertise, saying investors look beyond compliance when assessing board composition.

‘If you don’t have insight, what are you really bringing to the board?’ he asked. ‘If you’re on the board of a company operating in an industry where you have no expertise in, what are you doing about it? Should you really be on that board?’

On board diversity, he said some investors incorporate diversity requirements into their investment mandates but cautioned against treating it as a box-ticking exercise.

‘While diversity is important, unfortunately, what we see is that it has become more of a buzzword. We see companies trying to make boards diverse just to meet metrics,’ he said.

He said qualified directors with industry expertise, sufficient time commitment, and genuine independence remain the attributes investors value most.

‘What matters more is that the company has a very qualified board with members who have the time commitment, who can make the time commitment, and with the right level of independence. And if you can satisfy those conditions and at the same time make your board diverse, then all the better,’ he said.

Defining institutional investors as professional fund managers, sovereign wealth funds, insurance funds, and pension funds, Dr. Gunawardane said their investment process differs fundamentally from that of retail investors.

‘Most retail investors may look at valuations, may look at momentum and that may drive the type of investments that they make. Institutional investors, on the other hand, are a slightly different type of animal,’ he said.

He said long-term investors first assess whether a company fits their investment philosophy and governance standards, with valuation only determining when to invest.

‘For most institutional investors, and indeed it’s very true for us at LYNEAR, valuation is the last thing that we look at. My personal view is that valuation should really define when you invest and not what you invest in,’ he said.

Dr. Gunawardane said investors focus first on governance because boards are responsible for setting strategic direction, overseeing management, and remaining accountable to shareholders.

‘The Board of Directors of a company are responsible for guiding the overall strategic direction of the firm, monitoring the management, and providing accountability to shareholders. Sadly, a lot of board members overlook that last point, that of providing accountability to shareholders, particularly to minority shareholders,’ he said.

As institutional investors are typically minority shareholders, he said confidence depends on whether boards are willing to safeguard minority interests.

Concluding his address, Dr. Gunawardane said listed companies, as well as private firms seeking capital or planning a public listing, should examine whether their boards meet the standards institutional investors expect.

‘As institutional investors who, for the most part, tend to be minority investors in companies, it is imperative that the companies that we invest in are well-governed, and we strongly believe that a core part of a well-governed company is a qualified board with expertise and true independent directors who will ensure the protection of minority rights,’ he said.

He left directors with a series of questions: If you sit on several boards, are you committing enough time to each? If you are an independent director, are you truly independent? Do you have the expertise to guide the business? And are you prepared to challenge decisions in the interests of all shareholders?

The Criminal Investigation Department yesterday informed Negombo Magistrate Silani Perera that four inmates were named as suspects regarding the Negombo Prison incident.

The Magistrate ordered the prison authority to produce the said suspects before the court.

The inmates named as suspects in connection with this incident are Supun Madhusankha alias ‘Hinatiyana Supun’, Shane Dylan Silva, Ashan Fernando alias ‘Kalu Malli’, and Sameera Sampath alias ‘Baba’.

Uncapped off-spin all-rounder Saransh Jain has earned a maiden Test call-up to India’s squad for the upcoming two-match series in Sri Lanka in August.

Saransh has been selected on the back of a hamstring injury to Washington Sundar, who has been officially ruled out of the first Test. Saransh could be in for a Test cap at the age of 33 following consistent performances for Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket and India ‘A’.

All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is also back in the fold after being rested for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in June. The rest of the 15-man squad wears a familiar look, with Jasprit Bumrah back to spearhead the attack. Bumrah and incumbent No.3 batter Sai Sudharsan, however, have been picked subject to fitness clearance, while Nitish Kumar Reddy, who is one of many players rehabbing currently at the CoE is not part of the squad.

INDIA SQUAD FOR SRI LANKA TESTS: Shubman Gill (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Sai Sudharsan*, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Jasprit Bumrah*, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Devdutt Padikkal, Saransh Jain

Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) led a Congressional Delegation (CODEL) to Sri Lanka July 27-30 to strengthen the United States’ partnership with Sri Lanka and advance shared priorities for a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.

Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, where she is the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Military Personnel, and a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

While in Colombo, the delegation will hold high-level meetings with government, military, and local leaders, including the Deputy Defence Minister Major General (Retd.) Aruna Jayasekara, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Dr. Rizvie Salih, and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues.

Representative Houlahan’s visit reflects the United States’ commitment to a robust bilateral relationship with Sri Lanka, addressing shared priorities such as countering transnational crime, deepening commercial ties and economic development, and promoting regional stability and security cooperation.

The Inland Revenue (Amendment) Act, No. 11 of 2026 and the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Act, No. 14 of 2026 have now been enacted, introducing significant changes to Sri Lanka’s tax enforcement framework. While much attention has been placed on the substantive tax changes, the amendments also strengthen the Inland Revenue Department’s enforcement powers and increase the criminal exposure for non-compliance.

1. Criminal prosecution for failure to obtain TIN and file income tax returns

The Inland Revenue amendments introduce a new framework for prosecuting tax offences, expanding enforcement beyond administrative penalties. Taxpayers may now face prosecution for failing to comply with key obligations, including failure to:

n Register with the Commissioner General of Inland Revenue

n File income tax returns

n Furnish certain tax returns required under the Act

n Submit annual statements

n Appear before the Commissioner General pursuant to a statutory notice

Prosecution will not commence automatically. The IRD must first issue a written notice and allow the taxpayer an opportunity to rectify the default.

Upon conviction, a taxpayer may be subject to a fine not exceeding Rs. 400,000, imprisonment of up to six months, or both.

Don’t wait for IRD notices:

Taxpayers should not wait until an IRD notice is issued. Businesses and individuals with outstanding registrations, returns or statutory filings should take timely steps to update their tax affairs, as non-compliance may now result in criminal proceedings.

2. Failure to pay tax? The path to court just got shorter

The amendments allow the IRD to recover unpaid taxes through Magistrate’s Court proceedings, where the tax in default may be treated as a Court-imposed fine. This does not apply where a review or appeal is pending, but once recovery begins, the focus will generally be on collecting the tax debt rather than revisiting the assessment.

Enhanced IRD powers must be matched by enhanced responsibility:

Given the evidentiary weight attached to the Commissioner General’s certificate, assessments must be raised on a proper factual and legal basis, with due process, proper notice and administrative fairness being carefully maintained.

3. The clock now runs longer for VAT offences

The VAT amendments allow the Attorney-General, or an authorised person, to prosecute VAT offences, confirming that such matters may now proceed through a formal criminal process where warranted.

Twelve year limitation period for VAT offences:

Criminal proceedings for VAT offences may now be instituted within 12 years from the date the offence was committed, or where an obligation was not performed, from the date it was due to be performed.

Extended exposure for non-disclosure and misrepresentation:

For non-disclosure or misrepresentation affecting VAT liability, the prosecution period runs from the date the correct VAT liability is finally determined, which may extend exposure during unresolved audits, disputes, reviews or appeals.

Taxpayers should not wait until an IRD notice is issued. Businesses and individuals with outstanding registrations, returns or statutory filings should take timely steps to update their tax affairs, as non-compliance may now result in criminal proceedings

4. Failure to issue valid tax invoices and Customs declarations now a criminal offence

Failure to provide valid tax invoices, customs goods declarations or other required documents may now attract a fine of up to Rs. 1 million, imprisonment of up to six months, or both, making accurate invoicing and record-keeping more critical.

5. Refund abuse now a criminal offence

It is now an offence to obtain or attempt to obtain a VAT refund through fraud, misrepresentation, false or misleading information or documents, or by concealing material facts. Taxpayers should ensure all VAT refund claims and supporting documents are accurate, complete and capable of substantiation.

6. Penalties increased by forty-fold

For offences committed before 1 October 2025, a person is liable to a fine not exceeding Rs. 25,000, imprisonment of up to six months, or both.

For offences committed on or after 1 October 2025, the penalties increase significantly to a fine not exceeding Rs. 1,000,000, imprisonment of up to six months, or both.

This forty-fold increase in the maximum monetary penalty underscores the Government’s commitment to strengthening tax enforcement and compliance.

The offences under the VAT act are as follows:

n Failure to register for VAT where registration is required.

n Failure to notify the CGIR of changes or other matters required under the VAT Act.

n Failure to issue a valid tax invoice, or issuing multiple invoices for the same taxable supply.

n Issuing a tax invoice without being legally entitled to do so.

n Failure to file VAT returns, annual adjustments or other prescribed returns, or comply with DIR notices.

n Failure, without reasonable cause, to answer questions before an Inland Revenue officer under a statutory notice.

n Providing incorrect information affecting their own or another person’s VAT liability.

nDiverting payments required to be made to the CGIR.

nWillfully obstructing or delaying the CGIR or authorised officers in exercising statutory powers.

nFailure to maintain proper books and records as required under the VAT Act.

nIssuing tax invoices despite not being VAT-registered.

n Failure to comply with Gazette Orders or CGIR guidelines

7. Digital Service Providers – may face penalties for non-compliance

Registered non-resident digital service providers may face an administrative penalty of up to Rs. 50,000 for failing to submit prescribed statements on supplies made to VAT-registered persons in Sri Lanka. The penalty may be reduced or waived where the failure was beyond the taxpayer’s control and later rectified.

Homeowners can now experience the lifestyle envisioned at VIMAN Ja-Ela as John Keells Properties officially unveils the show apartment at the VIMAN Ja-Ela project site, bringing prospective buyers one step closer to modern suburban living.

Built on the development site itself, the model apartment lets visitors walk through a real VIMAN Ja-Ela home and experience its true layout, proportions, finishes, and quality first-hand. Prospective buyers are invited to explore the carefully designed spaces that bring together comfort, nature, and modern living.

Nestled in the heart of Ja-Ela, VIMAN has been thoughtfully crafted to offer more than just a place to live, it is envisioned as a community designed around comfort, connection, and everyday living. Spanning six acres with more than 60% of the land dedicated to green and open space, the development is designed to place nature and a sense of community at the heart of daily life. A thoughtfully curated mix of lifestyle amenities, from a resident clubhouse, swimming pool, and gymnasium to walking and cycling paths, children’s play areas, and inviting outdoor social spaces will give residents of all ages room to gather, relax, and connect. Unique communal settings such as the Ambalama are set to further enrich this spirit of community, creating natural gathering points where neighbours can meet and unwind.

Commenting on the development, John Keells Group Vice President and Sales and Marketing Head Nadeem Shums stated, ‘We’re delighted to open the doors to our show apartment and invite people to experience VIMAN Ja-Ela for themselves. Describing the lifestyle we’ve envisioned here is one thing – but stepping into the space and seeing the design and quality first-hand is something truly special.’

VIMAN Ja-Ela, developed by John Keells Properties, represents a new chapter in suburban living where modern design, everyday convenience, and a strong sense of community come together in a carefully planned environment. Located just 4 km from the Ja-Ela interchange on the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway, the development pairs a peaceful, landscaped setting with exceptional connectivity to key urban centres. With the opening of the show apartment, visitors can now explore the layout, quality, and design of the residences while gaining a first-hand understanding of the lifestyle that awaits within this growing residential neighbourhood.