<ul><li>Govt weighs legal action over past import-export abuses</li><li>Finance, Defence and Trade join anti-fraud mechanism</li><li>Licences face cancellation over trade law violations</li></ul> The Government is reviewing past cases of fraud and irregularities in Sri Lanka’s import and export process for possible legal action, with several ministries, including Finance and Defence, working together under a joint mechanism to prevent such abuses, the Ministry of Trade and Commerce said.Speaking to The Daily Morning, Deputy Subject Minister R M Jayawardana said the Trade Ministry did not have a direct mechanism to take action against every form of fraud or irregularity in the import and export process.However, he said several ministries had now joined efforts to address the issue and prevent corruption and other irregularities in the process.“Our Ministry does not have a direct mechanism to take action on those matters. However, several ministries, including the Ministries of Finance and Defence, have now come together and taken measures to prevent corruption and irregularities taking place in the import and export process,” he said.He said the Government was examining fraud and other irregularities that had taken place in the import and export of goods in the past and was working towards taking necessary legal action against those responsible and preventing similar incidents in the future. “These kinds of corruption and irregularities have been taking place for a long time. They had increased considerably during the past. What our Ministry does is issue the licences required for imports and exports, and we are now making sure that this process is properly implemented,” he said. Jayawardana said action would be taken against importers and exporters who violate the relevant laws and regulations, including the cancellation of licences issued to them. “If any importer or exporter acts against the relevant laws and regulations, we will definitely take steps to cancel the licences issued to them,” he said. Over the past, Sri Lanka has also faced various forms of irregularities in international trade, including the manipulation of values declared for imported or exported goods, commonly referred to as trade misinvoicing. Such practices can affect the amount of customs duties and taxes collected, the value of foreign exchange entering or leaving the country and the accuracy of trade records.&nbsp; The issue comes at a time when Sri Lanka continues to depend heavily on imports for fuel, food, medicine, machinery, industrial inputs and other goods needed for domestic consumption and economic activity. At the same time, export earnings are an important source of foreign exchange for the country, making the proper handling of both sides of the trade process important for the external sector.&nbsp;

Trade fraud cases under review

<ul><li>August bill jumps 76.5% to $450.6m</li></ul> Sri Lanka’s fuel import bill has surged by 61.6% to $4.07 billion in the first eight months of this year, increasing the country’s import expenditure on fuel by $1.55 billion compared to the same period last year, according to Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) data.The sharp increase comes despite the Government’s continued efforts to manage fuel consumption and expenditure, with the latest figures showing that the pressure on the country’s import bill has intensified rather than eased as the year progressed.Sri Lanka spent $2.52 billion on fuel imports between January and August 2025. The corresponding expenditure this year therefore represents an additional $1.55 billion outflow in just eight months.The increase has also accelerated in recent months, with the August fuel import bill rising by 76.5% year-on-year to $450.6 million, compared to $255.2 million in August last year.This amounts to an increase of $195.4 million in a single month.The August figures show that refined petroleum products accounted for the largest share of the monthly fuel import expenditure. Sri Lanka spent $321.9 million on refined petroleum imports during the month, up 58.7% from the $202.9 million recorded in August 2025.The increase of $119 million in refined petroleum expenditure alone highlights the scale of the additional foreign exchange being spent on fuel imports.The latest figures are significant for an economy that remains heavily dependent on imported fuel to meet domestic energy and transport requirements. Higher fuel import expenditure directly adds to the country’s overall import bill and increases the foreign exchange requirement for maintaining fuel supplies.The sharp year-on-year increase in August also indicates that the rise in fuel expenditure has not been limited to the cumulative increase recorded during the first half of the year.With the January-August fuel bill already exceeding $4 billion, the country has spent an average of more than $500 million a month on fuel imports during the first eight months of 2026.The latest CBSL data therefore point to fuel remaining one of the major components of Sri Lanka’s import expenditure, with the widening year-on-year gap placing further pressure on the country’s foreign exchange outflows.

January-August 2026: Fuel bill soars 62% to $4.07b 

<ul><li>Ministry Secretary rejects union claim</li></ul> Rejecting the Ceylon Teachers’ Union’s (CTU) claim that the Government cannot recruit 23,000 teachers this year, Education Ministry Secretary Nalaka Kaluwewa yesterday said the recruitment process was already at its final stage and that all appointments would be made before the end of 2026.Speaking to The Daily Morning, Kaluwewa dismissed as “completely false” the union’s claim that the recruitment was impractical as the answer scripts of the competitive examination had not yet been evaluated. “That is completely untrue. The allegation that recruiting 23,000 teachers is not practical is completely false. That recruitment will be done this year. They (trade unions) can see how it is being carried out,” he said.Responding to the CTU’s claim that the examination answer scripts had not even been taken up for evaluation, he said there was no possibility for such a situation to exist several months after an examination had been held. “How can they say that we have not even started marking answer scripts? Does a Ministry work in such a short-sighted manner? Do you hold an examination and wait for three or four months without marking papers? These allegations are completely false. I reject that allegation 100%,” he said. The Secretary further said the recruitment process had now reached its final stage and that the Ministry was already preparing for the interviews. “We are even conducting training sessions these days on how to conduct the interviews to select those who get through the examination,” he said. The CTU recently claimed that the country’s teacher shortage could exceed 50,000 by the end of the year, citing more than 40,000 existing vacancies and the possibility of around 10,000 teachers retiring after receiving the third installment of the 2026 Budget salary increase. CTU President Priyantha Fernando also questioned how the Government could complete the recruitment of 23,000 teachers from among those who sat for the recently-held examinations.&nbsp; He said the Department of Examinations had not yet begun evaluating the answer scripts and that the evaluation of the GCE Advanced Level examination would have to be completed first. He also said the GCE Ordinary Level examination would add to the workload of the Examinations Department, and that interviews for the teacher recruitment could take more than a month if 69,000 candidates had to be called under the usual procedure. He therefore claimed that the recruitment could not be completed before March 2027.

Education Ministry Says: 23,000 teacher recruitment at final stage

The Government has identified 100 estate hospitals and health facilities for takeover by the Health Ministry after staff shortages forced some facilities to close and left others facing the threat of closure, Deputy Health Minister Dr Hansaka Wijemuni said.Responding to questions from The Daily Morning, he said some health facilities had already been forced to close due to a lack of staff, while many estate hospitals continued to be managed by plantation companies rather than coming under the Health Ministry.He said the Government had now begun the process of taking over these facilities, with 100 identified for the first phase.The facilities include central dispensaries, central dispensaries with maternity units and other smaller health facilities.“Earlier, doctors were recruited separately for these estate hospitals as estate medical officers, but that system is no longer in place. Therefore, many of these hospitals are now facing the threat of closure due to the shortage of doctors and other staff,” he said. Dr Wijemuni said some estate hospitals had been converted into rural hospitals over the years, but others continued to be managed by the estates. The Government would use the existing buildings and other infrastructure of these facilities together with Government resources after taking them over, he said. “Some of these facilities are not strategically important, but there are areas where people have to walk several kilometres to find a hospital. Although the population in some of these areas is small, access to other health facilities is difficult. Therefore, we have decided to take over such facilities,” he said. The Health Ministry and the Ministry of Plantation Infrastructure are jointly working on the takeover of the 100 facilities, Dr Wijemuni said. He added that rural hospitals already under the Health Ministry had generally not been closed, although there could be one or two isolated cases.

100 estate hospitals marked for takeover

<h3> </h3><h3>Bodu Bala Sena General Secretary Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, who was arrested while warrants were pending against him, was yesterday (4) remanded until today (5) by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court.</h3>The Thera was produced before the Colombo Additional Magistrate by Colombo Crimes Division officers after a motion relating to the warrants was taken up in court.Police told the court that Thera had been arrested and produced in accordance with warrants issued by the Court of Appeal (CA), Colombo High Court and Colombo Magistrate’s Court.Appearing for the Thera, attorneys Iresh Seneviratne and Pasan Karunaratne told court that their client had been suffering from a mental breakdown and had therefore been staying at a forest monastery.Seneviratne also informed the court that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday terror attacks had recommended special security for the Thera. He therefore requested an order directing that special protection be provided to him while in prison.After considering the submissions, the Additional Magistrate ordered that the Thera be remanded.Prison authorities were ordered to produce him before the CA today in connection with the warrant pending before that court and before the Colombo High Court tomorrow (6) over the warrant pending there.He was further ordered to be produced before the Colombo Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday (7) in connection with the warrant pending before that court.The Magistrate also directed prison officials to take necessary steps to ensure the security of the remanded Thera.

Gnanasara Thera remanded over pending warrants

<ul><li>&nbsp;Health Ministry mulls cadre increase</li></ul>The Government needs to recruit around 20,000 more nurses just to meet the minimum cadre required to maintain the country’s health services, while a further 40,000 nurses are needed to bring the nursing workforce to an adequate level, according to the All Ceylon Nurses Union (ACNU).Speaking to The Daily Morning, ACNU General Secretary H M S B Mediwatta said the nursing service currently had around 45,000 nurses, but irregular recruitment over several years had created a major gap in the intake of new nurses. Retirements and nurses leaving the country had further worsened the shortage, he said.“There has been no regular recruitment to the nursing service from around 2021. A group that had completed three years of nursing training had to wait around nine months for appointments before receiving them in 2025. The 2019 Advanced Level (A/L) batch was also recruited only in 2025,” Mediwatta said.He added that interviews were currently being conducted for around 3,000 students who had passed the A/L examination between 2021 and 2024 and were seeking admission to nursing training.Mediwatta said around 2,800 nurses who had already completed their training were expected to receive appointments in November. He added that the shortage had become more serious as new hospital units, operating theatres and clinics were being opened without enough nurses to staff them. "The Hambantota District General Hospital is an example. There, two operating theatres and several specialised units cannot be fully started because of the shortage. The hospital has requested at least 50 to 75 nurses to operate those units," he said. He also said nurses were also being transferred from existing hospitals to fill vacancies elsewhere, creating shortages at the hospitals they left. "The problem was particularly visible at hospitals such as Talangama and Athurugiriya Divisional Hospitals. Talangama Hospital, which previously had 22 nurses, now has 15 despite an increase in services, and Athurugiriya Hospital has around 11 nurses compared to about 30 previously." Mediwatta said the nursing cadre itself also needed to be updated because the existing cadre was based on figures from around 2015 or 2017, despite an increase in the number of wards, operating theatres, clinics and other units in recent years. He said the Government was now working to increase the cadre by around 20,000, which he identified as the minimum requirement for maintaining services, but estimated that around 40,000 more nurses would be needed to bring the service to a proper level. Meanwhile, Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) Secretary Dr Ubaya Bandara Warakagoda said the Public Service Commission, the Ministry of Finance’s Department of Management Services, the Ministry of Public Administration and the Ministry of Health should work together to address the shortage as an urgent matter. He said newly established hospital units were also facing serious staff shortages, with some wards having only one specialist and one MBBS-qualified doctor and some having only a specialist doctor. “The shortage of human resources is not something that can be looked at by shortlisting one particular area. The problem exists from the National Hospital down to the smallest estate hospital,” he said, adding that the shortages were not limited to doctors and also affected nurses and field officers. He said a number of district hospitals, including hospitals in the Northern Province, needed nurses but did not have even a single nurse.&nbsp; Deputy Health Minister Dr Hansaka Wijemuni, speaking to The Daily Morning, said the Health Ministry had requested increases to the nursing and other health service cadres and had also made requests through Provincial Councils for cadres at provincial hospitals. Those requests would then be sent to the Management Services Department for approval. “Once it approves the cadre, we can increase it. But at present, the bigger issue is not the cadre. We have a limit on the number of nurses we can recruit, and that limit is currently insufficient,” he said. He also said newly recruited nurses could not be sent directly to hospitals because they had to complete the required training first. He said the Ministry was also taking steps to ensure that new hospital units were opened in a planned manner instead of simply being opened after construction was completed. “We have introduced guidelines for starting new units. Hospitals should recruit the required staff through the Ministry before starting a new unit. We have to plan this properly,” he said. The Ministry was also reviewing the distribution of health workers to ensure that nurses and other staff were deployed to places where they were needed. “We are looking at all these areas to ensure that there is no further unplanned development of the health sector,” Dr Wijemuni said.

 Health Sector: 20,000 nurses needed just to maintain services

Children housed in probationary homes are being kept within the centres for rehabilitation programmes because wardens fear they may attempt to escape if taken outside, according to the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs.Speaking to The Daily Morning, Ministry Secretary Tharangani Wickramasinghe said children placed in probationary homes for minor offences had left the centres on several occasions despite security measures, making wardens reluctant to take them outside for rehabilitation programmes.As a result, she said the Ministry was currently focusing on programmes that could be conducted within the probationary homes to engage with the children and create a more child-friendly environment."There have been instances in which children have managed to leave probationary homes despite the security arrangements in place. This has created practical difficulties in sending them outside the centres for rehabilitation activities. However, restricting children to the centres alone does not address the reasons that lead them to commit offences. We always pay greater attention to the circumstances in which they grow up. When we talk to these children, sometimes we understand that it is the environment that has caused the behaviour of the child.”&nbsp;&nbsp; She further said the current rehabilitation process includes psychological counselling aimed at changing the attitudes of the children, together with vocational training. “What we are doing is giving counselling to the children for an attitudinal change and providing them with vocational training. We are also looking at ways of creating an environment that would help children develop in a more positive manner from an early age."

Child Offenders: Practical difficulties hamper rehabilitation 

Around 95% of human rabies infections are caused by dog bites, making the vaccination of dogs critical to Sri Lanka’s efforts to eliminate rabies, according to the Association of Veterinarians for Humane Management of Animal Population (AVHMAP).Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (4), AVHMAP Convener Dr Chamith Nanayakkara said that continuing to vaccinate people only after they were bitten by dogs would not eliminate rabies, as the virus would continue to circulate within the dog population.He said Sri Lanka needed to focus on eliminating the rabies virus among dogs if it was to achieve the global target of eliminating rabies by 2030.“If we can remove the rabies virus from dogs, we can solve this problem. Otherwise, the virus will remain, dogs will continue to bite people, and we will continue giving injections to people after they are bitten. That is the method we have followed all these years,” he said.Dr Nanayakkara said veterinarians should be given responsibility for the animal rabies component of the programme, including dog vaccination, as they were trained to treat and vaccinate animals.He said the newly introduced Rabies Elimination and Dog Registration Bill provides for dog vaccination to be carried out by a veterinary surgeon or another person under the supervision of a veterinary surgeon.According to Dr Nanayakkara, the new law is expected to come into effect in 2027, following a plan prepared over the past one-and-a-half years in line with international guidelines.He said Sri Lanka had 337 veterinary offices and around 600 Government veterinarians, while more than 1,000 veterinarians were in active service across the Government and private sectors.“There is no shortage of veterinarians. There is a shortage of around 20 veterinarians in the Government sector, but we are already working with the private sector to fill this gap,” he said.Where a Government veterinary surgeon is not available, he said, a local authority could hire a private-sector veterinary surgeon on a contract basis.The three-year programme would also involve the sterilisation of dogs to control the dog population, with private-sector veterinarians expected to assist with vaccination and sterilisation, he said.Dr Nanayakkara said owned dogs should be registered and vaccinated, while local authorities should be responsible for unowned dogs.Training of vaccinators has already begun, with 50 vaccinators trained in the North Central Province, he said. The initial target is to train 100 vaccinators, while around 1,000 would eventually be required for the programme.He said around 250 vaccinators currently working under the Health Ministry could also join the programme if they wished, while personnel of the Department of Animal Production and Health (DAPH), who already vaccinate cattle, could also be trained to vaccinate dogs.Efforts to contact the Secretary to the Health Ministry for further comment were unsuccessful at the time of going to press.

Dog vaccination vital to end rabies: Experts 

A total of 5,000 houses across the country will be vested with beneficiaries today (5) to mark World Habitat Day, with at least one house being vested in each Grama Niladhari (GN) division, Minister of Housing, Construction and Water Supply Dr Susil Ranasinghe said.He said the houses had been constructed with Rs 1 million in Government assistance and community labour, while houses built under resettlement projects in the Northern and Eastern Provinces with Rs 2 million in Government assistance would also be vested with beneficiaries today.Accordingly, 618 houses have been built in the Kurunegala District, 200 in Kandy, 694 in Jaffna, 341 in Gampaha, 402 in Ampara and 348 in Anuradhapura.Dr Ranasinghe said several water supply projects would also be launched today to coincide with World Habitat Day.

Trade fraud cases under review

January-August 2026: Fuel bill soars 62% to $4.07b

January-August 2026: Fuel bill ...

Education Ministry Says: 23,000 teacher recruitment at final stage

Education Ministry Says: 23,00 ...

100 estate hospitals marked for takeover

100 estate hospitals marked fo ...

Gnanasara Thera remanded over pending warrants

Gnanasara Thera remanded over ...

Health Sector: 20,000 nurses needed just to maintain services

Health Sector: 20,000 nurses ...

Child Offenders: Practical difficulties hamper rehabilitation

Child Offenders: Practical dif ...

Dog vaccination vital to end rabies: Experts

Dog vaccination vital to end r ...

World Habitat Day: 5,000 houses to be vested today

World Habitat Day: 5,000 house ...

January-August 2026: Fuel bill soars 62% to $4.07b

January-August 2026: Fuel bill ...

Education Ministry Says: 23,000 teacher recruitment at final stage

Education Ministry Says: 23,00 ...

100 estate hospitals marked for takeover

100 estate hospitals marked fo ...

Gnanasara Thera remanded over pending warrants

Gnanasara Thera remanded over ...

Health Sector: 20,000 nurses needed just to maintain services

Health Sector: 20,000 nurses ...

Child Offenders: Practical difficulties hamper rehabilitation

Child Offenders: Practical dif ...

Dog vaccination vital to end rabies: Experts

Dog vaccination vital to end r ...

World Habitat Day: 5,000 houses to be vested today

World Habitat Day: 5,000 house ...

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100 estate hospitals marked for takeover

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Child Offenders: Practical difficulties hamper rehabilitation

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