Connect with us

News

US$ 750mn World Bank loan delayed: Samurdhi recipient list not verified

Published

on

A US$ 750 million loan from the World Bank has been delayed as verification of welfare beneficiaries has not been completed, among other pre-requisites, the Sunday Times learns.

The verification of the beneficiaries was due to be completed by Friday, March 31, but has now been deferred till April 10, thereby delaying the process of applying for the facility.

Under the programme, the recipients will be entitled to Rs 14,000 a month. Both, the IMF and the World Bank have pointed out that several Samurdhi beneficiaries are not below the poverty line and, therefore, not entitled to the benefits. The Government has been asked to prepare a list of ‘genuine’ beneficiaries.

The welfare beneficiary scheme is among six prerequisites to obtain the USD 750 million loan, following the IMF facility obtained two weeks ago.

Among the other pre-conditions are the opening of a Budget office in Parliament, the digitalisation of revenue collection and payments of Inland Revenue, and reforms in the Central Bank.  

A senior government official confirmed these were World Bank prerequisites that had yet to be fulfilled. He said that all the requirements could be completed soon with some of them already in the process of being completed.

The Government also needs to introduce a Social Security Bill under which the welfare payments would be made.

A senior Treasury official said the bill was due to be presented in Parliament this month and the programme could begin in June.

Welfare Benefits Board Chairman B. Wijeratne told the Sunday Times that 3.7 million applications had been received so far for social benefits and 2.4 million applicants had been verified up to date.

“There are several processes to complete the verification. They include an appeal process. We are trying to keep to the schedule,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Government had carried out a trial run of the new system by trying to disburse welfare benefits on the existing beneficiary list and found that Rs 500 million had been overclaimed, indicating that some of the beneficiaries had registered more than once. The new system is to be monitored by a QR code system.

(Sunday Times)

News

Litro slashes gas cylinder prices

Published

on

By

Litro Gas Lanka, one of the country’s two leading suppliers of domestic Liquefied Petroleum (LP) gas, has decided to slash the prices of its products.

The price reduction will be effective from midnight tomorrow (June 04), according to Litro chairman and CEO Muditha Peiris.

Continue Reading

News

Three state bank employees arrested for stealing pawned gold jewellery

Published

on

By

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested three employees of a state bank in Oddamavadi for stealing pawned gold jewellery to the tune of LKR 20 million.

According to the police, among the arrestees are the deputy manager, operations manager and the service assistant of the said state bank.

The trio is accused of stealing pawned 873g of gold jewellery from the safety-deposit box of the state bank.

The CID team had initiated probes into the matter after receiving a complaint about several pieces of gold jewellery that had gone missing from the depository of the bank.

An individual, upon visiting the bank to retrieve the gold jewellery he had pawned in November last year to obtain a loan, had learned that the items were, in fact, missing. After conducting an inspection, the bank employees realized that 13 packets of gold jewellery have been disappeared from the depository.

The bank’s management has suspended the duties of the deputy manager over the incident.

During the interrogations, he had confessed that two other female employees – an operations manager and a service assistant – too were complicit in the theft. They were later placed under arrest by the CID investigators.

They had used the depository keys which were in their possession to steal the gold jewellery on three occasions.

After stealing 13 packets of gold jewellery, the trio had sold them to gold jewellery shops in the area for LKR 13.7 million out of which LKR 5.7 million was retained by the deputy manager to settle a loan. The operations manager, meanwhile, held on to LKR 5 million, which she deposited in a bank for her daughter. The service assistant had purchased a three-wheeler and a piece of land from the LKR 3 million she received.

The trio was remanded until June 16 after being produced before the Valachchenai Magistrate’s Court on Friday (June 02).

Continue Reading

News

3 sluice gates of Kukule Ganga reservoir opened

Published

on

By

Three of the four sluice gates of Kukule Ganga reservoir were opened this evening (June 02) as heavy rains were experienced in the catchment areas.

The authorities have advised the people living in low-lying areas of the Kukule Ganga reservoir to be on alert of possible floods.

It is reported that the water levels of the reservoir have increased at an alarming rate after the downpours in the water catchment areas.

Meanwhile, the Irrigation Department issued an ‘Amber’ flood warning for the upper catchment areas of Kuda Ganga sub-basin of Kalu River after heavy rainfall was received.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2022 Sri Lanka Mirror. All Rights Reserved