"SELF DETERMINATION IS KEY TO THE WORLD PEACE"
ri Lanka approves 2012 budget, ups defence spending
[Thursday, 22 December 2011 15:43] Featured, News-
Sri Lanka’s FDI exceeds $1 bln in 2011-president
Reuters – 1 day ago
-
Final Budget Vote today.
The Official Government News Portal of Sri Lanka – 1 day ago
-
MR condemns attack on UNP HQ
The Island.lk (subscription) – 1 day ago
-
More coverage (1) »
(AFP) – 1 day ago
COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s parliament on Wednesday approved the country’s 2012 budget, officials said, boosting spending on defence despite the end of the island?s decades-long Tamil separatist war in May 2009.
The annual budget for 2012 unveiled last month by President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is also the finance minister, was passed with a two-thirds majority.
The budget increased defence spending to 230 billion rupees ($2.1 billion) from 215 billion rupees in 2011.
Officials said they need to keep defence spending high to settle loans on military hardware purchased to fight the Tamil Tigers during nearly four decades of ethnic conflict that ended in 2009.
Rajapakse devalued the currency by three percent during last month’s budget presentation and said he was keen to reduce imports of goods that could be easily manufactured on the island.
He offered tax breaks to small industries to make medical supplies and food supplements to save millions of dollars spent on imports.
Rajapakse, has a strong grip on power in Sri Lanka after overseeing the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels that ended a bloody conflict which the United Nations estimates claimed some 100,000 lives.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
Related articles
Add News to your Google Homepage
- Entries (RSS)
About us
Global Peace Support Group UK Ltd is a registered organisation based in London. The organisation dedicated to be involved in humanitarian and other related issues. We also work along with other similar organisations to promote peace and harmony among various societies..
GLOBAL PEACE SUPPORT GROUP - UK - TIRELESSLY WORK ON THE CONCEPT OF:
"SELF DETERMINATION IS KEY TO THE WORLD PEACE"
MOURNS ON THE CONTINUED TRAGEDY OF THE PEOPLE OF North & East of Tamil EELAM WITH THE HOPE OF ALL OF OUR ENDEAVOURS WOULD BRING AN END TO THOSE SUFFERING DURING THE YEAR AHEAD.
The International community has a duty towards the long suffering Sri Lankan Tamil population to restore their rights of SELF DETERMINATION.
Global Peace Support Group - believes that this is the ONLY way for a permanent PEACE in Sri Lanka.
Featured
Tamil Aricles
Latest from Tamil News Network (TNN)
- Unlawful killings in Sri Lanka – US May 25, 2012The United States has said that ‘unlawful killings by security forces and government-allied paramilitary groups are a major human rights problem in Sri Lanka, often in the predominantly Tamil areas.’ The 2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices published by the U.S. State Department stated that “The major human rights problems were unlawful killings by […]
- What’s next for General Fonseka? May 25, 2012It has been a couple of days since the former military commander of Sri Lankan Army and common opposition’s presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka was released from the prisons and I can’t think of a better timing than this for me to express some of my thoughts related to these developments, which I am sure many here would share with me, at yet anothe […]
- China to help Sri Lanka launch satellite by 2015 May 25, 2012China will help Sri Lanka launch its first satellite by 2015, officials said. Local company SupremeSAT said it has reached an agreement with the Sri Lankan board of investment for $20 million for the project. It has entered into an agreement with China’s state-owned China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) for the design, manufacturing and launching of […]
- Lankan oppn asks govt to implement LLRC recommenda May 25, 2012(PTI) Sri Lanka’s main opposition party on Thursday asked the government to implement the recommendations of the country’s reconciliation commission and revive talks with the main Tamil party TNA to find a political solution to the ethnic issue. United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe addressing the Parliament said that recommendations of the […]
- SL military coerces Jaffna University students to closed-door talks May 25, 2012The commander of the occupying Sinhala military in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe, intimidated leaders of the boycotting students of the Jaffna University to come for a closed-door meeting at the occupation headquarters on Wednesday to tell them that the SL military would not provide security to students if they engage in political or social activities. The […]
- Sri Lanka’s Sarath Fonseka barred from political office May 25, 2012Sri Lanka’s ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka is barred from political office for seven years, despite being freed from jail on Monday, his lawyer says. Mr Fonseka stood against President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a presidential election two years ago, lost and was imprisoned shortly afterwards. Mr Fonseka’s lawyer, Nalin Laduwahetti, says that the terms of his releas […]
- Sri Lanka sets up new courts to try war suspects May 24, 2012Sri Lanka is setting up new courts to accelerate cases against hundreds of Tamil rebel suspects three years after the end of the island’s bloody ethnic war, a government spokesman said Thursday. Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said the justice ministry would open three courts near the former war zone in the northeast of Sri Lanka to hear charges against more than […]
- Slaying of Tamil-Canadian underscores enduring ethnic violence in Sri Lanka May 24, 2012Andrew Mahendrarajah Antonipillai believed he was protected. Family and friends tried to warn him of the danger he faced returning to his native Sri Lanka. But Mr. Antonipillai, a man his Montreal neighbours knew as ready to help anyone in need, shrugged them off, saying his Canadian citizenship would keep him safe. “They can’t do anything to me,” he told fr […]
- Reconciliation: The Symbolic and the Substantive May 24, 2012Photo courtesy JDS Against the backdrop of grave planetary changes, Sarath Fonseka’s release, G.L. Peiris’s visit to Washington DC and the third anniversary of the defeat of the LTTE, an evaluation of the requirements of reconciliation are in order. There is a need to distinguish between the symbolic and the substantive – both in turn playing their part in […]
- India’s Marxist Communist Party calls for withdrawal of Sri Lanka military May 24, 2012The Marxist Communist Party of India (CPI-M) in a press release on Wednesday called for immediate withdrawal of the Sri Lanka military stationed in Tamil areas of the island. In one of the five resolutions passed at the state committee meeting of the party held at Ealakiri in Tamil Nadu last Sunday, it was decided to urge the Indian government to diplomatica […]