Category: Daily Financial Times

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team will visit Sri Lanka from 22 to 28 January on a fact-finding mission to assess the economic impact of Cyclone Ditwah and review its implications for the country’s reform program under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

IMF Communications Director Julie Kozack yesterday said the mission would focus on building a clearer understanding of the scale and scope of damage caused by the cyclone and how the shock has altered Sri Lanka’s macroeconomic trajectory.

‘This is a fact-finding mission,’ Kozack said. The objective is to gather an accurate picture of conditions on the ground as Sri Lanka navigates the combined pressures of economic adjustment and climate-related shocks.

She noted that the team would also discuss related policy implications under the EFF program, which has been guiding Sri Lanka’s economic reform agenda.

IMF Mission Chief for Sri Lanka Evan Papageorgiou in a statement yesterday said: ‘An IMF staff team will visit Sri Lanka from January 22 to January 28, 2026, to hold discussions with the authorities on the size and scope of the damage caused by Cyclone Ditwah. The findings of the mission will feed into subsequent discussions on the IMF-supported program.

‘This mission underscores the IMF’s commitment to supporting Sri Lanka as it deals with the economic and humanitarian challenges caused by the recent cyclone. During the visit, the IMF team will engage with Government officials and relevant stakeholders to understand the full impact on infrastructure, livelihoods, and economic stability.

‘The IMF team will explore how it can best assist Sri Lanka in its recovery efforts, including by resuming the Extended Fund Facility-supported program and offering policy advice and technical assistance to promote resilience and sustainable growth. Further communication will be provided at the end of the mission.’

The visit comes weeks after the IMF Executive Board on 19 December 2025 approved $ 206 million in emergency financing for Sri Lanka under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), aimed at meeting urgent cyclone-related needs while preserving macroeconomic stability.

At the time, the IMF had concluded the Fourth Review under the ongoing EFF program and its Executive Board was expected to announce the outcome of the $ 347 million tranche after evaluating the 2026 Budget.

However, the IMF and Government have agreed to temporarily pause the EFF program after the devastating cyclone. An initial impact assessment of IMF staff suggested that Sri Lanka will likely face Balance of Payments and inflationary pressures this year.

The IMF said the current account deficit could widen by around $ 700 million, or 0.7% of GDP, over the next 12 months. Its projections show headline inflation rising to 4% year-on-year (YoY) in December 2025, from 2.1% in November, while average inflation in 2026 is expected to increase to 5.4%, compared with the 3.3% forecast at the time of the Fourth Review, above the Central Ban of Sri Lanka’s 5% target.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake yesterday participated in a Thai Pongal festival at the Manipay Maruthadi Vinayagar Kovil.

The festival was organised by the Northern Province Tourism Bureau. The Jaffna District has emerged as a prominent destination in Sri Lanka’s tourism sector, attracting significant tourist interest. The Thai Pongal festival was enriched with a wide array of Tamil cultural performances.

Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar speaking at the event said: ‘With the arrival of the Thai month, a new path opens,’ noting that attempts by certain political actors to hinder the country’s progress have failed. He emphasised that the nation’s development requires unity among all communities-Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim alike.

President Dissanayake is on a two-day visit to the North which concludes today.

Yesterday, he officially launched Hayleys Fentons’ 50 MW wind power project in Mannar.

The President also connected the 20 MW ‘Windscape Mannar’ wind power plant constructed in Mannar by CEYLEX Renewables.

Under the ‘Windscape Mannar’ project, for the first time in Sri Lanka’s energy history, four of the country’s largest wind turbines, each with a capacity of 5 megawatts, have been commissioned, the President’s Media Division said.

As the project has been implemented by a fully local company, it has enabled a substantial amount of foreign exchange, which would otherwise have flowed to foreign contractors, to be retained within the country, thereby further strengthening the domestic economy.

The President unveiled the commemorative plaque to declare the wind power plant open and also participated in the turbine commissioning ceremony.

Amana Bank Assistant Vice President Arshad Adnan opening the Self Banking Centre along with other distinguished guests

Amana Bank has further expanded its people-friendly and development-focused banking footprint with the opening of its 41st Self Banking Centre (SBC) in Thambala, located in the Polonnaruwa District, marking its presence as the first private bank in the area and serving the surrounding agricultural and trading community. Responding to the long-standing need for a convenient and accessible banking facility in the area, the new SBC, located at 93A, Al-Hilal Pura, Thambala, offers customers 24/7 access to cash withdrawals, cash deposits, and cheque deposits, ensuring unmatched ease and convenience for residents, merchants, and traders.

The opening ceremony was graced by the presence of Amana Bank Assistant Vice President – SME and Regional Branches Arshad Adnan, Head of Retail Sales and Acquisition Channels Mohamed Asmil and Kaduruwela Branch Manager Razick Jiffry.

Adnan said: ‘Thambala is a close-knit community located within one of Sri Lanka’s key agricultural regions, sustained by the Mahaweli River. By establishing this Self Banking Centre, we are pleased to provide residents, farmers, traders, and small businesses with convenient 24/7 access to secure banking services. This initiative underscores our commitment to supporting local livelihoods, strengthening rural economic activity, and contributing to inclusive national development.’

The event was attended by Divisional Secretary Lankapura H. M. Vishaka S. Jayawardhana; representatives of the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, Trustees of the Thambala Jummah Masjid, along with local business representatives and area residents.

The Monthly Medal Golf Tournament for January 2026 concluded successfully, producing strong performances across all divisions and highlighting the depth of talent within the Club. Golfers competed fiercely in their respective segments, with both Gross and Nett honours keenly contested throughout the day. The two days of golf saw more than 280 members teeing off.

The top division was won by Romesh Abhayaratne, who stamped his class, while youngster Kumar Danushan was the runner-up, showing consistency in the recent past. Danushan also won the Gross, showing his supreme class as one of the future prospects for Sri Lankan golf.

Women’s Senior Division

Danny Hameed emerged as the Nett winner with an excellent score of 70 nett, while runner-up Kathey Twerenbold followed closely with 71 nett on count-back. The Gross honours were claimed by Kalyani Ranasinghe with a score of 100 gross.

Women’s Bronze Division

Deepani Gamage secured the Nett winner title with a score of 72 nett. Runner-up Manori Jayakody finished second with 73 nett, while also taking gross honours with 99 gross, showing consistency across formats.

Women’s Silver Division

Michele Thurairaja claimed the Nett winner award with 72 nett on count-back. Runner-up was Usha De Silva, finishing close behind with 72 nett. Jade Jiggens stood out in the gross category with an impressive 85.

Junior Division

Yuvan Rathis Kanth delivered a composed performance to take the Nett winner title with 70 nett. The runner-up Thejas Rathis Kanth, his brother, finished second with 71 nett, while also claiming the Gross title with 74, underlining his all-round excellence.

Masters Division

Milinda Ratnayake dominated the division with a fine 68 nett. Runner-up was Amal Cabraal with 71 nett via count-back. Bandula Weerasinghe claimed the Gross honours with 84.

Senior Division

Evergreen golfer Kumar Boralessa enjoyed a standout outing, winning both Gross (74) and Nett (67) titles, while the runner-up was Udaya Nawimana, finished with 69 nett.

Division C

Reyhan Morris topped the division with a strong 63 nett, and also claimed the Gross prize with 84, while runner-up Shiraz Lye finished on 66 nett after count-back.

Division B

Udula Wijesinghe claimed both Gross (79) and Nett (66) honours. Runner-up was Normal Dharmaratne with 67 nett.

Division A

Romesh Abhayaratne captured the Nett title with 68 nett on count-back, while the runner-up was Kumar Danushan, finishing with 68 nett, while also winning the Gross prize with an outstanding 67. (SJ)

The Inter Club Rugby League 2025/2026 moves into the deeper end of its first round with only one final set of matches remaining next weekend. With every team having tasted defeat at least once, the title race remains wide open. Defending champions, Kandy SC, CR, CH, and Havies are front runners.

Meanwhile, Air Force, Army, Police, Navy, and Sri Lions are tipped to feature in the Plate segment, with eight teams moving forward. For the Clifford Cup knock, too, there will be a play-off between the 8th and 9th teams, while only one of them move forward.

At Police Park tomorrow, Police SC will host Sri Lanka Army SC, with both teams already ruled out of Cup segment contention and set to compete in the Plate segment. Despite their inconsistent campaigns, this encounter promises to be closely contested. However, Army SC hold the edge due to their superior organisation, experience, and tactical discipline.

Army will be led by seasoned national player, Sudaraka Dikkumbura, whose leadership remains central to their plans. Strong support from Ijaz Ahmed, Mohamed Akram, and Nalaka Maduranga adds depth and stability to the side. Police SC, captained by Shanaka Harischandra, will look to Heshan Kalhara and Mohan Wimalaratne for inspiration, but Army’s composure should see them through.

Later under lights at Longdon Place, CR and FC take on Sri Lanka Air Force in a crucial Cup segment encounter. The Red Shirts rebounded superbly after their loss to CH, edging defending champions Kandy SC at Nittawela. Led by Lasindu Karunathilake with key contributions from Thenuka Nanayakkara, Naveen Marasinghe, and Chamod Muthunayake, CR enter as clear favourites.

Air Force, led by Shanaka Werella, must win their remaining fixtures to stay alive in the Cup race. However, on current form and momentum, CR should pull through without major difficulty.

On 18 January, CH and FC meet Sri Lions at Longdon Place. Plagued by injuries, the newcomers face an uphill task, while CH will be desperate to bounce back after last week’s heavy defeat to Havelock SC. With Cup qualification at stake, CH are expected to return to winning ways with a convincing bonus-point victory.

Much debated topic today that is impacting the general public most is the Electricity policy and the Tariff policy. Why this topic is of high importance is, that it will impact the day-today lives of the entire population and the economic future of Sri Lanka.

As per the Electricity act of 2024/25 (Amended) it is required to formulate a National policy for Electricity and Tariff. The future of the country and its people will be heavily dependent on how these policies are formulated in a consumer and business friendly manner, in line with the country’s national policy, its international commitments and the prevailing electricity act., therefore stands at high importance.

The Minister of Power and Energy appointed a six people committee to formulate these two policies last year. The draft of the Electricity/Tariff policy was presented to the minister by the members of the committee in mid-December 2025 dated 15 December 2025. As per the Electricity Act, the Minister is then required to check the policy and decide whether it’s in line with the National Policy, Electricity Act etc.

The process followed by the appointed committee is highly questionable. As per the Act, it is the responsibility of them to hold stakeholder consultations prior to attempt to draft the policy. These stakeholders include, Public Utilities Commission, National System Operator, Chambers of Commerce, Consumer organisations etc. After due consultation the policy must be written and sent to the minister for further action as stipulated in the act.

The entire fiasco started when the committee not following the approved process and writing the policy without having neither the consumer nor the businesses in mind. On top of it they have hired a consultant who has drafted the policy against the legal framework defined in the act which makes it an unacceptable policy as per the law. (A person has vested interest in the matter)

Over the last 15 years, the single source of highest volume of energy to the national grid was supplied by Solar (Total installed capacity of 2,500MW). Even from this, the largest portion was given by Solar Rooftops with minimum expense to the grid (2,100MW). All the Solar projects were done by consumers making them a group of small-scale power producer called PROSUMERS. This system broke the backbone of emergency power and diesel power plant influence of the grid. Having felt the punch, much of the focus of the Electricity Policy written by the committee was to stop rooftop solar. The committee has even gone to the extent of punishing the PROSUMER community group by force, changing the connectivity mechanism to Time of Use tariff which will result the rooftop owners paying very high amounts monthly to the utility. The possible result of the proposed shift is explained in charts 1.

The electricity usage pattern has changed drastically over the last few years and load curve which was peaking after 6.30 p.m. now has got advanced. This is expected to be virtually a flat line by the 2027/28. Generating electricity from Solar is addressing this increasing day time demand and have some other very important commercially beneficial aspects to the country. It is saving the much-needed water, and function as a hydro battery. Non disposed water during the daytime is saved in reservoirs and disposed after 6pm when solar energy is no more. This is a major saving that has never been considered when evaluation of the indirect benefits of Solar. On the other hand, the fossil fuel usage in the power plants also have drastically reduced due to increased rooftop solar integration.

The famous Norochcholai power plant has had only 68% plant factor during 2025. Anyone can remember the problems country faced with islandwide blackouts when breakdown occurred at the coal plant. Why, we do not hear this anymore is Rooftop Solar. The thermal oil-based power plants usage has dropped from 38% in 2019 to 12% in 2025. This is also partly due to high presence of Rooftop Solar in the grid. Anyone can see who is hurt from the rooftop solar. It’s Coal and Diesel? More rooftop solar will result in further reduction of Thermal oil and Thermal Coal which is not liked by the coal buyers and fossil fuel-based energy producers. The chart 2 explains how the fossil fuel dominance reduced from 38% in 2019 to 12% in 2025. This reduction has occurred purely because of the renewable energy growth from 10% in 2019 to 26% in 2025.

The chart 3 explains which energy source is the cost driver. Very evidently, the oil. To generate 12% of energy, the utility end up spending 40% of its generating cost.

Despite very clear evidence, which energy source brings the cost down and reduces the pressure on consumers, this committee has decided to completely stop the feed-in tariff and completely destroy the solar rooftop industry.

One other important issue that will affect large volume of electricity consumers is proposed flat tariff and removal of the cross subsidy. World over the electricity consumers who are using less than 60kWh (Units) a month are considered as consumers in energy poverty. In this bracket Sri Lanka have over 1.9mn households who are using less than 30kWh a month, 1.8mn households using between 31-60kWh a month and 1.4mn households using between 61-90kWh a month. In total, Sri Lanka has over 3.7mn electricity consumers who are in the energy poverty. This is over 55% of our population.

The committee proposes that every consumer will pay cost reflective flat tariff and as a result these 3 consumer segments will have major increase in their electricity costs anything between 50%-300% while high energy consumers will have lower bills. The chart 4 shows how these increases and reductions are affected.

As per the 2019 Paris agreement Sri Lanka ratified, the country’s policy is to drive the electricity sector to 70% renewable energy grid by 2030 and have a 100% decarbonised energy sector by 2050. However, there is no mention of these important parameters in the policy which should have been the foundation of the policy.

We strongly believe that the President and the Minister of Power and Energy will look into this very seriously and take corrective measures to instruct the Secretary to the ministry to appoint a new committee with members with country focused vision rather than just going ahead with the same set of people who miserably failed in their duty for people.

(The author is Deputy President, National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, Chairman-Energy Council NCCSL and Member-Energy Committee Ceylon Chamber of Commerce)

Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation General Ltd. (SLICGL), Sri Lanka’s only A+ Fitch-rated General Insurer, hosted the 2nd Annual General Insurance Pinnacle Achiever (GIPA) Awards in Indonesia, honouring the top 33 Sri Lankan and 10 Indonesian general insurance sales professionals.

The Indonesian ceremony, held in collaboration with J.B. Boda, Indonesia, celebrated multi-faceted excellence that extends past sales volumes, recognising sustainable practices, customer-centricity, and professional discipline.

GIPA is the world’s first dedicated recognition platform exclusively for General Insurance sales professionals. It was initiated by SLICGL and hosting the GIPA Awards with overseas winners bring added demonstrating SLICGL’s long-term commitment to industry excellence, upliftment, and global collaboration

For over 60 years, SLIC has been a recognised leader in the insurance industry in Sri Lanka. SLICGL identified a long-standing gap in global recognition for General Insurance sales excellence.

Life Insurance has established aspirational international benchmarks such as the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) and the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA). MDRT is a global association recognizing the highest-performing life insurance and financial services professionals for their excellence, ethics, and client service. LIMRA is an international research and professional development organization that sets industry benchmarks and provides training, insights, and standards to over 850 companies worldwide.

Accordingly, SLICGL conceptualised GIPA in 2023 as a structured recognition and development framework. Built on six performance pillars including volume recognition, new business contribution, business retention success, year-on-year growth, business sustainability and profitability, and national or organisational ranking, GIPA sets a new global benchmark for professionalism, sustainability, and customer value in GI sales. Recognition levels include GIPA Achiever, GIPA Star, and GIPA Legend.

In addition, the significance of the awards lies in its global-first positioning. Aligning with international performance parameters, the awards seek to offer independent, standardised, and professionally governed evaluation. They fill a decades-long industry void, seeking to bring General Insurance sales on par with established Life Insurance benchmarks. For sales professionals, GIPA seeks to provides a career pathway with international recognition.

GIPA is being gradually elevated from a national initiative to an international platform. SLICGL strives to enable knowledge exchange among GI professionals worldwide, raising standards in markets, and establish emerging markets such as Sri Lanka can lead globally recognized industry frameworks.

The Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE)

recently welcomed Sarvodaya Development Finance PLC (SDF) with two sustainability bonds, which are now displayed on the LGX Platform.

These two 5-year Bonds, totalling Rs. 2 billion, will finance green (renewable energy and clean transportation) and social (affordable housing, employment generation, women empowerment, food security and socioeconomic advancement) projects. This listing follows a delegation visit from the SDF representativesits Chairman Channa de Silva, CEO Nilantha Jayanetti and Head of Strategic Planning Mahesh Jayasanka to LuxSE premises.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, together with the American Chamber of Commerce, Exporters Association of Sri Lanka, Federation of Renewable Energy Developers, Joint Apparel Association Forum, National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, and Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies, has submitted joint observations on the Draft National Electricity Policy, highlighting that several key issues have not been adequately addressed.

In a statement yesterday, the Chamber said: ‘Whilst recognising the need for reform in the electricity sector, the submission flags several gaps in the draft policy that require closer attention. Key areas such as affordability, de-carbonisation commitments, incentives for renewable energy, competition, and the long-term financial health of the sector are either missing or not addressed in sufficient depth.

The proposed tariff revisions outlined in the draft energy policy raise concerns, particularly regarding the removal of cross-subsidies and the proposal to restrict subsidies exclusively to households consuming less than 30 kWh per month. Without detailed analysis, these measures could weaken access to sustainable and affordable energy and potentially lead to fiscal risks.

The provisions allowing uncompensated curtailment, removing feed-in tariffs, and imposing mandatory time-of-use tariffs on rooftop solar users could make renewable energy projects un-bankable for international lenders, thereby increasing the cost of capital for Sri Lanka.

Calling for a more future-focused approach, the submission stresses the need for a policy that reflects modern electricity systems, including planning for the energy transition, energy storage, market competition, cross-border electricity trading, and emerging technologies.

The chambers and associations request a comprehensive revision of the Draft National Electricity Policy, alignment with the Electricity Act, and resubmission following substantive consultation, and reiterate support to engage constructively with policymakers to shape a policy that supports affordability, investment confidence, and Sri Lanka’s long-term energy security’.

Bank of Ceylon (BOC) partnered with the 36th Annual Convention of the Association of Professional Bankers (APB) Sri Lanka, reaffirming its commitment to promoting professional excellence and knowledge sharing within the banking sector. The partnership was officially handed over by BOC Chief Marketing Officer Sameera D. Liyanage and Deputy General Manager – Business Revival Unit M.R.N. Rohana Kumara, reflecting the bank’s focus on empowering banking professionals and supporting the sustainable growth of Sri Lanka’s financial services industry.