An audit committee will investigate alleged financial irregularities at 10 Divisional Secretariat offices in Nuwara Eliya District, covering the period from 2023 to 2026. The committee will examine alleged fraud involving Aswesuma payments at the Norwood and Talawakelle Divisional Secretariats. It will also review the distribution of Cyclone Ditwah relief, Samurdhi allowances and subsidies, and payments to senior citizens.

Audit committee to probe Nuwara Eliya financial irregularities

The revised Value Added Tax (VAT) invoice format will become mandatory from 1 October 2026, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has announced. The implementation, initially scheduled for 1 July, was postponed to give businesses more time to update their accounting and billing systems. The IRD has now issued an Extraordinary Gazette notification on the revised format and instructed businesses to ensure their systems comply before 1 October.

Revised VAT invoice format mandatory from October

Sri Lanka has recorded 92,011 dengue cases and 68 deaths so far this year, according to the National Dengue Control Unit. A total of 96 Medical Officer of Health areas have been identified as high-risk areas. The Western Province has recorded the highest number of cases at 48,725, followed by the Southern Province with 13,533. July recorded the highest monthly total so far, with 29,968 cases, while 6,671 cases were reported during the first 15 days of August.

Dengue cases surpass 92,000

<ul><li>Existing Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act to be repealed</li><li>Degree of punishment and fines to be increased</li><li>352 suspects engaged in IUU apprehended from Jan. to March</li></ul> A new and improved bill that heavily penalises Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is to be implemented by the end of this year, followed by the repeal of the existing Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act No.2 of 1996, The Sunday Morning learns.Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Director General Susantha Kahawatta told The Sunday Morning that the existing act comprised over 100 gazetted regulations that applied both locally and internationally.“Some things have changed, locally as well as internationally. Therefore, we have considered these changes, repealed this act, and have made a new act. Actually, by now, we have finished preparing it, submitted it to the Cabinet, and sent it to the Legal Draftsman for clearance. Once clearance from the Legal Draftsman is received, we will submit it to the Cabinet again, send it to Parliament, and we hope to get it done before the end of this year,” he said.&nbsp;He explained that one of the changes in the amended act was the increase of degree of punishment and the amount of fine to be paid if someone was caught engaging in IUU. Additionally, several new laws that cover areas absent from the existing act have been added to the new bill.&nbsp;According to Kahawatta, over 100 suspects have been apprehended for bottom trawling in 2025 and 2026. Sri Lanka has battled fleets of Indian poachers who cross the international maritime boundary every week in large numbers and trawl Sri Lankan waters.&nbsp;The latest interception of IUU off Talaimannar’s Urumalai Point on Wednesday (12) involved nine fishermen caught using banned bottom-trawling equipment, a practice local northern Sri Lankan fishing communities and marine conservationists warn is decimating fragile seabed ecosystems and depleting shared marine resources.&nbsp;Kahawatta stated that incredible damage was done environmentally by bottom trawling, with marine ecosystems being disturbed by unregulated fishing. “When nets are dragged along in that manner, the seabed is completely destroyed, and if there are corals, those get destroyed too. Moreover, it’s not selective; sometimes small fish species and other marine species get caught in these nets. Therefore, we cannot consider this as a sustainable fishery practice anywhere,” he explained.He pointed out that the local fishermen’s harvest and the country’s resources were directly impacted by bottom trawling. The destruction of protected species and the seabed also affects the resources in the long term, according to Kahawatta.“We face many negatives both directly and indirectly. We have to calculate how much catch a boat brings per day and per month to calculate that loss. Apart from that, there are also costs for the Navy to arrest suspects,” he said.&nbsp;According to the Sri Lanka Navy’s IUU Fishing Report 2026, 352 suspects engaged in IUU have been apprehended from January to March, with 90 fishing vessels seized.

Tougher IUU fishing law by year-end

<ul><li>Gazette expected within a month</li></ul>Sri Lanka’s long-awaited Cyber Security Bill has entered its final drafting stages, with a gazette expected within a month, according to Ministry of Digital Economy Secretary Waruna Sri Dhanapala.Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Dhanapala said that the drafting team had completed 90% of the work, with the remaining focus centred on finalising the operational framework and determining the precise structure of the proposed cyber security regulatory authority.&nbsp;He stated that this included critical planning for implementation, as well as staffing required to make the authority functional. The legislative process, he added, was likely to be ready for the next stage of approval in one month.Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (Sri Lanka CERT) Acting CEO Dr. Kanishka Karunasena confirmed to The Sunday Morning that the bill was currently with the Legal Draftsman for final adjustments.&nbsp;“All the comments from our side have been given. Once the remaining minor amendments were integrated, the document would be forwarded to the Attorney General’s Department, he said.&nbsp;A primary objective of the new legislation is to provide a statutory foundation for cybersecurity efforts in the country. Dr. Karunasena explained that while Sri Lanka CERT was currently operating, it lacked a formal legal mandate to enforce its directives, with operations largely based on guidelines rather than binding authority.“Sri Lanka CERT doesn’t have a formal mandate,” he said, adding that once the act was passed, it would grant the institution the legal mandate and powers to work with greater independence, including the authority to conduct mandatory assessments and issue binding instructions.&nbsp;The bill also seeks to address what Dr. Karunasena described as a major gap in the country’s digital defences – the absence of a central authority to oversee State agencies. “There is no institution in Sri Lanka to tell Government institutions what specific cybersecurity measures must be taken,” he said.&nbsp;The proposed cyber security regulatory authority is intended to fill this void by setting mandatory standards, with the power to mandate Government institutions to follow specific protocols and ensure State agencies comply with national security requirements.Cabinet approval was granted in April for the establishment of the national cyber security regulatory authority, a move officials say is intended to significantly strengthen the sector compared to its current state.At present, cybersecurity oversight falls under Sri Lanka CERT, which provides guidelines to safeguard against cyberattacks and responds when entities face such threats, but has no enforcement powers.&nbsp;“That organisation cannot enforce cybersecurity implementations across digital platforms. Therefore, there must be a regulatory body to publish enforcement and compliance requirements, and to enforce the application of those measures in all critical infrastructure, both public and private. To establish this regulatory body, we must have a proper legal framework, which is what the Cyber Security Bill aims to achieve,” Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eranga Weeraratne told The Sunday Morning on a previous occasion.The push for legislation comes against a backdrop of rapid digitalisation and a rising incidence of cyberattacks.&nbsp;According to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL), over 65% of Sri Lankans used social media in 2024 and nearly a third used digital payments.&nbsp;The Government’s digital transformation drive aims to accelerate economic growth by expanding digital public infrastructure and increasing the volume of sensitive data exchanged online – with digital systems now embedded across critical national infrastructure including energy, transport, healthcare, and telecommunications, meaning cyber incidents now carry potential population-scale consequences.The threat is not unique to Sri Lanka. The Asia-Pacific region accounts for over a third of global cyber incidents, and the average cost of a data breach globally exceeds $ 4 million. Locally, the Sri Lanka CERT Coordination Centre has reported a sharp rise in incidents, from 596 in 2019 to 4,347 in 2024, driven primarily by scams, phishing, data breaches, and ransomware.&nbsp;

Cyber Security Bill nears final stage 

<ul><li>Handwritten prison and rehabilitation records under scrutiny</li><li>23,352 missing-person cases recorded, including 16,966 active civilian cases</li></ul>&nbsp;The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) has launched a ‘special silent operation’ to trace individuals who disappeared during the 1971 and 1988–’89 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurrections, targeting historical records held in prisons, rehabilitation camps, and displacement camps, alongside a detailed update on its active caseload.OMP Chairman Mahesh Katulanda, Commissioners Mirak Raheem and T. Yogarajah, and Executive Director J. Thatparan outlined the new phase of the office’s work during a media briefing on Thursday (13).&nbsp;This phase turns investigative focus towards historical records from the two earlier periods of unrest, at a time when the OMP’s work has largely centred on cases arising from the more recent civil conflict.&nbsp;“We are looking into prisons, rehabilitation camps, and displaced camps where people were held,” Katulanda said, describing the search as vital to establishing the fate of those arrested or detained decades ago.Explaining the scale and difficulty of the undertaking, he said: “If we look back at the history of this country regarding prisons, rehabilitation camps where detainees were held, or displacement camps where displaced persons stayed, we are silently conducting a special operation regarding those camps where people were said to have been taken and sent for rehabilitation in ’71 and ’88/’89.&nbsp;“Likewise, the ’88/’89 era was not a technologically advanced era, and in ’71 technology was not that advanced either; all those records were kept in writing on paper and in books.”Katulanda said this meant investigators were having to manually search through handwritten books and paper records, a process he described as painstaking but necessary.Raheem framed the effort as a significant expansion of the OMP’s mandate to address what he called the long-term struggle of families dating back to the 1980s and said that it was part of ensuring the State fulfilled its legal obligation to provide answers and redress to all victims of enforced disappearance, not only those from the more recent conflict.Beyond the historical cases, Raheem said that the OMP had also been proactive in its interventions with current Prisons authorities, working to prevent the recurrence of enforced disappearances. Citing a recent complaint involving six specific detainees following unrest at the Negombo Prison, Katulanda said the OMP had confirmed through official channels that all six were in custody at present and that the office was coordinating meetings between them and their families.Giving a detailed account of how the OMP’s database had evolved, Katulanda said that the office had originally inherited a list of approximately 42,000 complaints from various past commissions and organisations.Through a verification process to remove duplicates – including cases where multiple relatives had separately reported the same missing individual – the list was initially refined to 14,992 unique individuals. As public trust in the institution has grown, new complaints have continued to be registered, bringing the current total to 23,352 records, according to Katulanda, of which 16,966 are active civilian cases.Thatparan said that the OMP had personally met with 9,072 families for face-to-face inquiries and that the office had established the fate of 31 individuals to date: 25 cases have been fully verified as deaths, while six others are known to be living, pending final verification.&nbsp;On the OMP’s role in mass grave investigations, Raheem stated that the office was observing several high-profile excavations and continued to advocate for a multidisciplinary approach involving forensic archaeology, anthropology, and genetics.In Kokkuthoduvai in Mullaitivu, he said, archaeologists had uncovered 68 human remains believed to be of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters; despite public appeals regarding clothing tags and ‘dog tags’ found at the site, no identifying information has been received from the public.In Mannar, excavation at the Sathosa site has unearthed more than 300 skeletons and the OMP awaits a final archaeological report; Raheem said that the office had advised the court not to rely on a single report, such as carbon dating, in reaching conclusions.&nbsp;At the Colombo Port site, 106 human remains have been found, with forensic reports currently being finalised. The Chemmani site, which Raheem described as “very complicated,” has yielded more than 540 human remains to date, with excavation continuing past the 100-day mark. In Kurukkalmadam in Batticaloa, radar tests were carried out following witness reports that 140 Muslims had been abducted from the area in 1990; while the excavation has yet to find remains, Raheem said witnesses were often afraid to break ranks with the community to come forward with evidence.Thatparan reported significant progress on administrative redress for families. He said that the OMP had recommended 2,716 Certificates of Absence (COAs), of which 335 families had already obtained them, while 464 families had received certificates of death following OMP recommendations in cases where an individual’s fate had been confirmed.Raheem stated that the COA had specifically been introduced for families who were nervous about accepting a certificate of death while they continued to hold on to hope for answers.&nbsp;Thatparan also confirmed that 5,427 families had received a one-time revival payment of Rs. 200,000 as interim relief. Katulanda clarified that this payment was not final compensation but immediate support while a broader reparations package was finalised.Addressing the temporary removal of the list of military missing persons from the OMP website, which the office said was for technical upgrades, Katulanda announced that the OMP was developing a more advanced, comprehensive database in collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Economy.&nbsp;“We expect to launch a comprehensive database that everyone can accept by February 2027,” he said. Separately, the Government has authorised the recruitment of 69 new staff members, including lawyers and psychosocial officers, to strengthen the office’s investigative capacity.The OMP will commemorate the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on 25 August in Jaffna, with a secondary ceremony held in Matara. Katulanda said the event’s theme, ‘Victims First: Immediate Action,’ reflected the office’s commitment to prioritising the needs of affected families.

Missing persons: OMP to trace those missing from ’71, ’88/’89 eras 

The Government has launched a Rs. 1 billion irrigation restoration programme to rehabilitate ageing canals and tanks and strengthen water retention capacity ahead of the seasonal rains expected in late September or October.&nbsp;Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Deputy Minister of Land and Irrigation Aravinda Senarath said the initiative formed part of a comprehensive three-year programme, with a total allocation of Rs. 3 billion aimed at strengthening the country’s water management infrastructure.&nbsp;The initiative comes amid severe hardship faced by farmers, particularly paddy cultivators, in the Northern, North Central, Eastern, and Uva Provinces due to the prevailing dry weather.&nbsp;“We have planned to complete work at 100 locations – 10 projects in each selected district – within this year,” Senarath said.&nbsp;The initial phase commenced in Mullaitivu on 1 July. Work is currently underway in several districts, including Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Hambantota, and Puttalam, while operations in the Monaragala District are expected to begin shortly.&nbsp;The programme focuses on infrastructure coming under the Department of Agrarian Development. “We are focusing on restoring small tanks, canals, and anicuts,” Senarath said.Addressing concerns over the prevailing El Niño conditions, the Deputy Minister said that although several areas were experiencing dry weather, the situation remained under control.&nbsp;“We have identified that small tanks in almost all districts have dried up, while some reservoirs still retain a certain amount of water. However, the information currently available to us indicates that El Niño will not have a significant impact during the remainder of this year,” he said.&nbsp;Senarath said drinking water supplies linked to the Mahaweli system and water required for cultivation were being managed without major difficulties.&nbsp;With meteorological forecasts indicating that rainfall may begin in late September or October, the ministry is seeking to complete the restoration of small tanks before the rains to maximise water retention.&nbsp;He added that water stored in selected reservoirs would be used sparingly over the next two months to maintain an uninterrupted drinking water supply until the rainy season. Management plans covering both the Mahaweli and general irrigation systems remain in place to mitigate possible shortages.Meanwhile, Department of Meteorology Forecasting Division Director Meril Mendis told the media that sufficient rainfall to ease the prevailing dry conditions was expected only around October.&nbsp;

Climate resilience:  Govt. races to restore 100 tanks and canals

<ul><li>45 State institutions among entities identified in Auditor General’s audit</li><li>Institutions account for nearly 64% of total Rs. 961 b in arrears</li><li>Rs. 59.5 b in collectable dues outstanding for over 2 years</li><li>Special recovery mechanism sees only 18% cash recovery</li></ul>&nbsp;Nearly 468 major State and private institutions have accounted for more than Rs. 613 billion in tax arrears, penalties, and interest, as Sri Lanka’s total outstanding tax dues surged past Rs. 961 billion as at 30 June 2024, a special audit by the Auditor General has revealed.The Special Audit Report on Taxes in Arrears, Penalties, and Interest to be recovered to the Inland Revenue Department from Registered Taxpayers, issued by Auditor General L.S.I. Jayarathna recently, has raised concerns over delays in recovering collectable taxes, billions of rupees remaining unresolved for years, and weaknesses in the tax administration systems of the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).&nbsp;According to the report, the total tax arrears, penalties, and interest recorded in the IRD’s Legacy system and Revenue Administration Management Information System (RAMIS) of Rs. 961.448 billion as at 30 June 2024 is an increase of Rs. 18.445 billion from the Rs. 943.003 billion recorded a year earlier.&nbsp;Significantly, an audit examination of 468 major institutions found that they alone accounted for Rs. 613.709 billion, or 63.83%, of the total outstanding amount.The group comprised 45 Government institutions, including banks, financial corporations, and companies, 101 private financial companies, and 322 other major private institutions. Of the Rs. 613.709 billion attributable to these institutions, Rs. 154.440 billion related to Government institutions, Rs. 255.815 billion to private financial companies, and Rs. 203.454 billion to other major private institutions.However, the audit found that only Rs. 48.743 billion of this amount had been classified as collectable, while Rs. 564.966 billion had been temporarily held over.&nbsp;Against this backdrop, the Auditor General has recommended that the IRD separately identify sectors and institutions with a greater tendency to default on taxes and conduct tax audits to determine their correct liabilities and recover amounts due.The report has also raised concerns over the age of arrears already classified by the department as collectable. Of Rs. 168.366 billion in collectable tax arrears, penalties, and interest, Rs. 59.483 billion, or 35%, had remained outstanding for more than two years as at 30 June 2024.The Auditor General observed that the recovery of amounts already identified as collectable had not been carried out with sufficient efficiency and called for recovery measures to be expedited. The report further recommended that significant delays in recovering tax arrears be investigated in order to identify the reasons for such delays and determine whether any irregularities had occurred.Meanwhile, hundreds of billions of rupees classified as temporarily held over have also remained unresolved for prolonged periods.Under RAMIS, Rs. 639.07 billion had been classified as temporarily held-over arrears, penalties, and interest, of which Rs. 239.071 billion, or around 37%, had remained unresolved for more than two years.The position under the Legacy system was more striking. Of Rs. 154.012 billion temporarily held over, Rs. 151.703 billion – approximately 99% – had remained outstanding for more than two years.&nbsp;As at 30 June 2024, 55% of temporarily held-over tax arrears were at the appeal or review stage, while a further 15% were subject to legal proceedings, according to the audit.&nbsp;The effectiveness of the special mechanism for recovering defaulted taxes has also come under scrutiny.&nbsp;The Auditor General found that between 31 December 2019 and 30 June 2024, only around 18% of outstanding taxes dealt with through the special recovery mechanism had actually been recovered in cash.&nbsp;Of the balance, 54% related to corrections, settlements, and adjustments, while 28% had been written off under provisions of the Finance Act.Separately, arrears handled by the Tax Recovery Division under the Special Provisions for the Recovery of Taxes in Default Act declined from Rs. 33.263 billion as at 30 June 2019 to Rs. 21.056 billion as at 30 June 2024.The audit has also flagged shortcomings in RAMIS, including its inability to automatically generate tax arrears reports.According to the Auditor General, the reporting formats used under RAMIS and the Legacy system did not provide sufficient information to determine changes in individual arrears balances between the beginning and end of each six-month period, resulting in officers having to spend additional time compiling recovery information.&nbsp;The report also highlighted a Rs. 2.647 billion balance in a suspense account that had remained unresolved for more than five years.&nbsp;Further concerns were raised over the reporting of arrears relating to the Social Security Contribution Levy (SSCL).The audit found that SSCL arrears had not been included in tax arrears reports as at 31 December 2024. An examination of a sample of around 52 tax files identified approximately Rs. 277 million in arrears that had not been reported, leading the Auditor General to warn that the total amount omitted could be material.The Auditor General has recommended that the IRD expedite the recovery of collectable arrears, examine long-outstanding amounts that have been temporarily held over, strengthen internal controls, effectively utilise legal provisions available for recovering taxes in default, and address weaknesses in its tax arrears reporting systems.Attempts by The Sunday Morning to contact IRD Commissioner General R.P.H. Fernando to ascertain how much of these outstanding arrears has since been recovered were unsuccessful.&nbsp;

State revenue: 468 institutions yet to pay Rs. 613 b in taxes 

The 22nd Constitutional Amendment Draft Bill, which includes measures to expand the retirement age of judges in Sri Lanka, will be presented to Parliament on Tuesday (18), according to Minister of Justice and National Integration Harshana Nanayakkara.The Minister has also confirmed that the Judicature (Amendment) Bill will be presented to Parliament on the same day.The Constitution states that once a bill is introduced to Parliament, it can be challenged in the Supreme Court within 14 days. The Supreme Court is required to hear any such petition and report its decision to Parliament within 3–21 days.&nbsp;The Chief Prelates of the three nikayas, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), Opposition political parties, and many international organisations have all spoken out against the Government’s decision to extend the retirement age of judges.&nbsp;Despite the objections, the Government has proceeded with the gazetting of the proposed 22nd Amendment Bill.&nbsp;During a meeting with BASL representatives on Wednesday (12), President Anura Kumara Dissanayake reiterated the Government’s view that the proposed amendment should proceed.&nbsp;However, during the meeting, the BASL delegation had advised the Government not to move forward with the planned amendment, expressing concerns over its potential impact on judicial independence and saying it was not a priority measure for improving the country’s judicial system.The BASL proposed that all relevant stakeholders, including the legal profession, judges, and academics, be consulted properly and meaningfully before the Government takes any further action. It further proposed that the matter be submitted to a Parliamentary Select Committee.&nbsp;Meanwhile, the President addressed the Government’s position on the proposal, stating that the decision to extend the retirement age of judges had been made in the public’s best interests rather than those of any individual or group.The President added that the proposed extension was part of a wider programme to strengthen the justice system, which includes increasing the number of Court of Appeal and High Court judges and improving court infrastructure.

Audit committee to probe Nuwara Eliya financial irregulariti ...

Revised VAT invoice format mandatory from October

Revised VAT invoice format man ...

Dengue cases surpass 92,000

Dengue cases surpass 92,000

Tougher IUU fishing law by year-end

Tougher IUU fishing law by yea ...

Cyber Security Bill nears final stage

Cyber Security Bill nears fina ...

Missing persons: OMP to trace those missing from ’71, ’88/’89 eras

Missing persons: OMP to trace ...

Climate resilience: Govt. races to restore 100 tanks and canals

Climate resilience: Govt. rac ...

State revenue: 468 institutions yet to pay Rs. 613 b in taxes

State revenue: 468 institution ...

Judges’ retirement age: Bill to P’ment on 18 August

Judges’ retirement age: Bill t ...

Revised VAT invoice format mandatory from October

Revised VAT invoice format man ...

Dengue cases surpass 92,000

Dengue cases surpass 92,000

Tougher IUU fishing law by year-end

Tougher IUU fishing law by yea ...

Cyber Security Bill nears final stage

Cyber Security Bill nears fina ...

Missing persons: OMP to trace those missing from ’71, ’88/’89 eras

Missing persons: OMP to trace ...

Climate resilience: Govt. races to restore 100 tanks and canals

Climate resilience: Govt. rac ...

State revenue: 468 institutions yet to pay Rs. 613 b in taxes

State revenue: 468 institution ...

Judges’ retirement age: Bill to P’ment on 18 August

Judges’ retirement age: Bill t ...

Bringing the news paper to your fingertips

Revised VAT invoice format mandatory from October

Revised VAT invoice format man ...

Dengue cases surpass 92,000

Dengue cases surpass 92,000

Bringing the news paper to your fingertips

Tougher IUU fishing law by year-end

Tougher IUU fishing law by yea ...

Cyber Security Bill nears final stage

Cyber Security Bill nears fina ...

Missing persons: OMP to trace those missing from ’71, ’88/’89 eras

Missing persons: OMP to trace ...

Climate resilience: Govt. races to restore 100 tanks and canals

Climate resilience: Govt. rac ...