By Rehana Thowfeek President Anura Kumara Dissanayake announced in his Budget 2026 speech that the Government would reduce the Value-Added Tax (VAT) threshold from Rs. 60 million to Rs. 36 million. There are claims that this move, which would largely affect Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), will lead to an inflationary impact because of its…
By Rehana Thowfeek A GDP growth rate of 7% is an ambitious target. An ambitious target requires ambitious actions, but is Budget 2026, the National People’s Power (NPP) party’s first real Budget bold enough to deliver on such an ambitious target? A Budget is more than just the numbers. it is also the Government’s policy…
By Savithri Rodrigo Sri Lanka’s next year’s (2026) Appropriation Bill pegs spending at a staggering Rs. 4,434 billion. But, with soaring debt and International Monetary Fund (IMF) targets looming, can the Government really deliver? Big money is going to finance, defence, health, and Local Government (LG) — but, will this budget mark real change or…
Economist and Arutha Research Director – Civic Education Rehana Thowfeek said Sri Lanka must stop repeating the mistakes of the past and commit to an open, outward-looking trade policy if it wants to escape recurring economic crises. Speaking at the Annual Conference on Public Sector Reforms for Economic Revival, organised by CA Sri Lanka and…
The Government’s plan to unwind para-tariffs has been thrown into doubt by its own revenue projections, according to analysis by economic think tank Arutha Research, which says the 2026 Budget sends mixed signals on one of the most critical reforms for export growth. The Budget reiterates the President’s commitment to phasing out para-tariffs in line…
සෞඛ්‍යය, අධ්‍යාපනය, පිරිසිදු කිරීම, යටිතල පහසුකම් වැනි සේවා වැනි බොහෝ සේවාවන් ප්‍රමාණයක් තීරණය කරන ගාමක බලවේගයක් වන්නේ මේ පළාත් පාලන ආයතනයි. එනමුත් මේ ක්‍රියාවලියේදී ඡන්දය ලබා දීමට අමතරව ඔබට සම්බන්ධ විය හැකි ආකාරය පිළිබදව ඔබ දන්නවද? ඒ අයවැය සම්පාදනය කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලිය තුලිනි. පළාත් පාලන ආයතන යනු කියන්නේ මෙරට ජන ජීවිතයට සෘජුවම බලපාන ආයතනයකි.ඒ වගේම පුරවැසියන්…
(The writer is a Co-Founder of Arutha and a Director at the organisation. Arutha is an economic research and civic education organisation established in 2022, with a primary focus on public debt and taxation) US President Donald Trump shocked the world on 2 April by announcing his Liberation Day tariffs – a spate of import…
Many newspapers are erroneously portraying the newly launched credit guarantee scheme (CGS) under the National Credit Guarantee Institution (NCGI) as a first-of-its-kind scheme. While the NCGI itself is a new institution set up to operationalise an ABD-funded CGS aimed at SMEs, CGS’s themselves are not a new phenomenon in Sri Lanka. Even the NCGI itself…
By Thilina Panduwawala A Central Bank dataset that carries an ambiguous category of foreign debt reported under state-owned enterprises (SOEs). World Bank International Debt Statistics (IDS) data that shows a higher public debt liability to Chinese creditors than the Ministry of Finance annual reports. The curious absence of loans taken to build the Hambantota Port…
This article was written by Rehana Thowfeek, Co-Founder & Director, Arutha. Arutha is an economic research and civic education organisation established in 2022, with a primary focus on public debt and taxation. This article is an adaptation of a paper published by the author in the Bandaranaike Academy for Leadership and Public Policy (BALPP) Policy…
