BIZ

Plan to provide NLDB & Milco to Amul, scrapped – Namal

Published

6 months ago

December 19, 2024

editor

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Namal Karunaratne has assured that the government has decided not to move forward with the previous administration’s proposal to lease farms and milk distribution centres owned by the National Livestock Development Board (NLDB) and Milco Ltd. to India’s Amul Milk Cooperative.

The deputy minister said this in Parliament yesterday (Dec. 18) in response to a question raised by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Hesha Withanage.

“The previous Government attempted to hand over all NLDB farms and the Milco company to Amul and another local company. This was strongly opposed by the Farmers’ Federation. As someone who was directly involved in these efforts, I can confirm our stance on this matter. The plan to award these assets to a low bidder has been halted, and none of them will be handed over to the proposed entities,” he said.

In July this year, former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and former Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera jointly submitted a Cabinet paper proposing to lease farms owned by Milco and NLDB to India’s Amul milk cooperative for a period of 99 years. An assessment valued Milco and NLDB assets at Rs. 90 billion, while the Highland brand name was valued at Rs. 2 billion.

BIZ

Over 18,000MT of salt imported to address shortage

Published

6 hours ago

June 13, 2025

editor

Sri Lanka has imported 18,163 MT of salt between May 22 and June 07, according to Customs.

The total cost of these imports amounted to approximately Rs.1,291 million, with Rs.720 million paid as taxes.

The imports are part of efforts to address the ongoing salt shortage, with a total target of 30,000 MT to be brought into the country.

BIZ

CBSL advises banks to further assist affected SMEs

Published

19 hours ago

June 12, 2025

editor

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), with a view to facilitating sustainable revival of businesses that were adversely affected during the recent past has advised the licensed commercial banks and licensed specialised banks (hereinafter referred to as licensed banks) to provide further concessions to those SME borrowers who commenced discussions for business revival with the respective banks by 31.03.2025.

These relief measures are in line with Circular No. 04 of 2024 dated 19.12.2024 on Relief Measures to Assist the affected SMEs and the Addendum Circular No. 01 of 2025 dated 01.01.2025.

Accordingly, licensed banks have been advised to provide further concessions including interest reliefs and new lending to affected borrowers while the timeline given to the licensed banks in Circular No. 04 of 2024 to enter into reschedulement agreements with eligible SME borrowers has been extended from 15.06.2025 to 30.06.2025.

press_20250612_relief_measures_to_assist_the_affected_small_and_medium_enterprises_e Download

BIZ

Qantas to close budget airline Jetstar Asia

Published

2 days ago

June 11, 2025

editor

Singapore-based budget airline Jetstar Asia will close down at the end of July, its Australian owner Qantas has announced.

The low-cost carrier has struggled with rising supplier costs, high airport fees and increased competition from other airlines in the region.

Qantas says the closure will provide it with A$500m ($325.9m; £241.4m) to invest towards renewing its fleet of aircraft, adding that it will redeploy 13 planes for routes across Australia and New Zealand.

The closure of Jetstar Asia will not impact its Australia-based Jetstar Airways operations, nor those of Jetstar Japan, according to a statement from Qantas.

“We have seen some of Jetstar Asia’s supplier costs increase by up to 200 per cent, which has materially changed its cost base,” said Qantas Group Chief Executive Vanessa Hudson in the statement.

The discount airline, which has operated flights for over 20 years, is set to make a A$35m loss this financial year.

(BBC News)