Thematic

Online Proactive Disclosure Under the RTI Act in Sri Lanka

Verité Research and the World Bank developed a methodology to monitor online proactive disclosure of information, in accordance with the RTI Act. Verité Research then used this methodology to monitor and evaluate the online proactive disclosure of information across 55 public authorities in Sri Lanka. The report found that 20% of public authorities scored in the ‘moderately satisfactory’ band. The majority, 75% of public authorities scored within the ‘moderately unsatisfactory’ band and 5% scored ‘unsatisfactory’. No authority scored ‘satisfactory’ or ‘highly satisfactory’.

Reducing Domestic Barriers to Export Success

Export promotion has been a key policy objective of successive governments of Sri Lanka. The Government aims to double the value of exports to USD 20 billion by 2020. Currently, the government is taking measures to improve the investment climate and ease the bureaucratic burden for the private sector; investors and businesses. One such bureaucratic hindrance is the export registration process. This policy note finds that although the current registration process was introduced with the intention of identifying and supporting new exporters, its execution severely impedes the achievement of this goal.

අපනයන සාර්ථකත්වය අඩාල කරන දේශීය බාධක ඉවත් කිරීම

අපනයනය කරන්නට සිතන ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් අපනයනකරුවෙකු ලෙස ලියාපදිංචි වීම ලංකාවේ නීතිය යටතේ අනිවාර්ය වේ. ඒක පුද්ගල සහ හවුල් ව්‍යාපාරිකයන්ට අදාළ ලියාපදිංචි වීමේ ක්‍රියාවලිය අනවශ්‍ය ලෙස දීර්ඝ, අකාර්යක්ෂම සහ දුෂ්කර එකක් බව වෙරිටේ පර්යේෂණ ආයතනය කල අධ්‍යනයකින් හෙළි දරවු විය.   වත්මන් ක්‍රියාවලිය අවම වශයෙන් පියවර 10කින් සමන්විත වන අතර, විවධ රාජ්‍ය ආයතන 6ක් ඊට සම්බන්ධ වේ. මේ සඳහා සති 1-3ක කාලයක් ගත විය හැක. අපනයන බලපත්‍ර අවැසි භාණ්ඩ අපනයනය කරන්නට සිතන ව්‍යාපාරිකයන්ට සිය ලියාපන්දිචිය සම්පුර්ණ කිරීමට මීට  අමතරව තවත් සති කිහිපයක් වැය කරන්නට සිදු වේ. නව අපනයනකරුවන් හඳුනා ගෙන ඔවුනට අත්වැලක් සැපයීමේ අරමුණින් හඳුන්වා දී ඇති මෙම අනිවාර්ය ලියාපදිංචිය, ක්‍රියාත්මක වී ඇත්තේ එම අරමුණට පටහැනි ආකාරයෙනි. දේශීය ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් අපනයනය සඳහා දිරි ගැන්වීමට නම් මෙම ක්‍රියාවලිය සරල, කෙටි සහ තර්කාන්විත එකක් බවට පත් කිරීම ඉතා වැදගත්ය.

Who is Responsible for ‘Alternative Facts’ on Cigarette Taxation?

There are three false claims that have been prevalent in print media, in relation to the tax and price increases of cigarettes in the last quarter of 2016. The claims were that (i) tax revenue reduced, (ii) beedi consumption increased, and (iii) CTC lost economic value. The Insight provides analysis that contests all three claims.

Tobacco Policy: Mitigating the Influence of Vested Interests

Sri Lanka is a signatory to the International Treaty, Framework Convention on Tobacco Control since 2003. It has not yet implemented the provisions relating to protecting tobacco policy from vested interests. This Insight explores the consequences of not doing so and meaningful steps that can be taken towards mitigating the influence of vested interests.

The Hidden Side of Cigarette Pricing

Analysis of past tax and price data reveals two aspects of cigarette pricing that are hidden from media reporting: first, net-of-tax price grew at a faster rate than the tax per cigarette; second, that the government’s tax share of the cigarette price has fallen over time.

Sri Lanka-China FTA: Challenges and Opportunities

Sri Lanka and China decided to enter into a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in August 2013 to further expand trade between the two countries. Technical negotiations, which officially commenced in September 2014, are still underway with five rounds of negotiations having been concluded. China is the world’s second largest economy, its largest exporter and its second largest importer. For a small market economy like Sri Lanka, an agreement with a country such as China presents exciting opportunities as well as daunting challenges. This briefing note provides an assessment of the challenges and opportunities that Sri Lanka is likely to face in operating under an FTA with China. Potential challenges and opportunities have been identified by analysing the key features of China’s existing FTAs with other countries.

ජාත්‍යන්තරව පිළිගත් ශී‍්‍ර ලාංකික සන්නාමයන් ගොඩගැනීමේ ඉදිරි පියවරක් ලෙස වෙළද ලකුණු ලියාපදිංචිය සදහා සරළ ක‍්‍රමවේදයක් හදුන්වාදීම

මැඞ්රිඞ් ප්‍රොටෝකෝලය යනු වෙළද ලකුණු විදේශයන්හි ලියාපදිංචිය සදහා ඇති සරල, ගෝලීය ක‍්‍රමවේදයකි. ශී‍්‍ර ලාංකික ව්‍යාපාරවලට වෙළද ලකුණු විදේශ රටවල ලියාපදිංචියේ දී මුහුණදීමට සිදුවන දුෂ්කරතාවයන් එමගින් සමනය කරගත හැක.මැඞ්රිඞ් ප්‍රොටෝකෝලයෙන් ප‍්‍රතිලාභ ලබාගැනීමේ දී, වෙළද ලකුණු ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාව තුළ ලියාපදිංචි කිරීම තීරණාත්මක පළමු පියවරකි.

Facilitating The Registration Of Trademarks A Step towards Creating Internationally Recognised Sri Lankan Brands (Tamil)

The Madrid Protocol is a simplified global system for registering trademarks abroad. It eases trademark registration abroad for Sri Lankan businesses. Sri Lanka is looking to complete accession to the Madrid Protocol by the end of 2017 or early 2018. However, accession to the Madrid Protocol will not necessarily help address the related challenges faced by Sri Lankan business; the challenge of registering trademarks in Sri Lanka. Verité has conducted research on the challenges faced in the process of registering trademarks in Sri Lanka and how these challenges undermine the benefits of the proposed accession to the Madrid Protocol. This policy brief presents an analysis of these issues and provides recommendations to overcome the identified obstacles.

The new Ministers of Finance: Will their budget keep its promises?

Analysis of past budgets reveal large deviations between budgeted allocations and actual expenditure. This shows that expectations set by the government during the budget speech are not honoured. This Insight analyses budgeting on social services and the rural economy to demonstrate the extent of deviations in promised allocations and actual expenditure. Results suggest that when precise expenditure is not tangible, it is easier to renege on budget promises.