Saturday May 16, 2026 8:57 pm
Saturday May 16, 2026 8:57 pm
ECONOMYNEXT – State-owned SriLankan Airlines has denied liability to a Dubai-based service provider who had not received payment after the national carrier deposited the payment to a different account following an email from the agent’s official email, the Airlines said.
SriLankan Airlines said the Dubai-based service provider informed them that it had not received funds for an AED 974,000 payment.
Subsequently, it was discovered that the UAE service provider’s email account had been compromised by a third party.
This party altered the bank account details and provided requested additional documentary proof through established official communication channels, misleading SriLankan Airlines into believing it was dealing directly with the legitimate service provider, the Airlines said.
“SriLankan Airlines took immediate action to prevent any further payments to the said account and reported the matter to the authorities in (the) UAE and the Criminal Investigation Department in Sri Lanka,” SriLankan Airlines said in a statement.
“Investigations are currently ongoing in Sri Lanka and (the) UAE. SriLankan Airlines reiterates that the payment was made based on the established email instructions and supporting documentation with authorised signatures that were later found to have fraudulently originated from the compromised service provider’s account.”
“Further, SriLankan Airlines disclaimed and denied any liability to the service provider for non-receipt of funds by them as this situation has arisen due to compromise of their email system which was entirely outside control of SriLankan Airlines.”
The island nation has detected a number of similar financial frauds recently, including a US$2.5 million fraud from the Treasury through hacking and US$625,000 from the Postal Department. (Colombo/May 16/2026)
Saturday May 16, 2026 9:43 pm
Saturday May 16, 2026 9:43 pm
ECONOMYNEXT – A few Indian nationals who worked at the finance department of SriLankan Airlines’ Chennai office misappropriated 22 million Indian rupees after fraudulently altering invoices and signatures, the national carrier said on Saturday.
It said the fraud occurred over a period of time “by fraudulently altering invoices, payment details and signatures”.
“The Airline’s Head Office in Colombo detected unusual payments and initiated an internal investigation,” SriLankan said in a statement.
“Following the internal investigation, the employees concerned ceased reporting to work and appropriate action has been taken against the said employees.”
“SriLankan Airlines immediately referred the matter to the relevant Indian law enforcement authorities and investigations are currently ongoing and action will be taken to recover the loss.”
The latest fraud was detected amid investigations into the national carrier depositing US$265,000 to a wrong account of a UAE based service provider following the Dubai agent’s email was compromised and SriLankan had received instructions via official email.
The island nation has detected a number of similar financial frauds recently, including a US$2.5 million fraud from the Treasury through hacking and US$625,000 from the Postal Department. (Colombo/May 16/2026)
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Saturday May 16, 2026 6:39 pm
Saturday May 16, 2026 6:39 pm
ECONOMYNEXT – State-owned carrier SriLankan Airlines has been hit by two financial frauds in the United Arab Emirates and South India due to hacking of an agent’s email and forgery of documents, two sources and the Deputy Finance Minister said.
The loss-making airline had remitted US$265,000 (974,000 UAE Dirham or around Rs.80 million) to a wrong account after receiving instructions via official email from an agent with its Dubai office to deposit the money in a different bank account, a source aware of the inquiry told EconomyNext.
“The agent’s email was hacked and the hacker has used the agent’s email to ask SriLankan to deposit the money into a different account,” the source said.
The second financial fraud was detected in the SriLankan office in Chennai, where three Indian nationals who had worked in the South Indian office swindled money worth 22,000 Indian rupees (around Rs. 80 million) using forged documents.
“Now, the Indian police are probing this,” a second source said.
The island nation has detected a number of similar financial frauds in the recent past including a US$2.5 million fraud from the Treasury through hacking and US$625,000 from the Postal Department.
Deputy Finance Minister Anil Jayantha said probes are underway into both frauds.
“If there is any leakage or any issue under our government everything will be investigated, the information will be provided and we will address this quickly,” Minister Jayantha told reporters when asked about the frauds.
!The Dubai agent has sent information to Sri Lankan Airlines stating that the problem is with our system. However, they are investigating. We’ll see what has really happened,” he said.
“Of course, that much money was paid by Sri Lankan Airline, not to the agent, but to someone else.”
He said some “Indian Nationals” working in Chennai SriLnkan office Station as employees have forged some documents and “taken some money out”.
“Both is investigated separately. First one is clearly connected to the agent, but the second one is in a way, we can say that the fraud was done by an employee.” (Colombo/May 16/2026)
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Saturday May 16, 2026 2:48 pm
Saturday May 16, 2026 2:48 pm
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka has imposed a temporary 50 percent surcharge on Customs Import Duty on new personal vehicles for three months effective May 16, aiming to restrict imports and reduce the depreciation of the rupee currency, Deputy Finance Minister Anil Jayantha said.
With the new surcharge, vehicle buyers who place their order within the next three months through August 15 will pay 45 percent Customs Import Duty compared to the current 30 percent.
“The objective of this tax is to delay the import of new personal vehicles by three months,” Junior Finance Minister Jayantha said.
He said the reason behind the move was due heavy import of vehicles has been leading to “unnecessary pressure on the exchange (rate).
The rupee has depreciated 4.5 percent against the US dollar so far this year as of 15 May 2026, the Central Bank data showed.
“At the same time that would leave room for opportunistic the traders and dealers as well. Because we want to protect and continue and navigate the country based on the stabilization that we have already achieved. So therefore, this increase of the imposition of surcharge is only for the three month period for limited categories of vehicle.”
“It has no reason to affect the market price. This is only for a period of three months by requesting importance to differ the importation for three months if possible. But in any case, if any importer is need of importing a particular vehicle within three months, just you have to pay this additional amount.”
He said motor bicycles, three wheelers, and commercial vehicles were excluded from the new surcharge.
“We have allowed people to import vehicles if it is essential. If the LCs (Letter of Credits) are opened up to May 15, they still can import without any additional taxes,” he said. (Colombo/May 16/2026)
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Friday May 15, 2026 6:46 pm
Friday May 15, 2026 6:46 pm
ECONOMYNEXT — Sri Lanka’s Dialog Axiata, a leading telecommunications company, posted a net profit of of Rs.9.2 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, marking a 122.3% increase from Rs.4.1 billion recorded in the same period of 2025.
The group’s revenue grew by 9.2% year-on-year to reach Rs.47.3 billion, up from Rs.43.3 billion in the first quarter of the previous year.
Direct costs for the period were managed at Rs.20.5 billion, down from Rs.21.4 billion.
Higher revenue and lower direct cost in the quarter resulted in a gross profit of Rs.26.9 billion.
The Mobile operation remained the primary driver of top-line performance, contributing Rs.36.4 billion in revenue from external customers and generating a segment operating profit of Rs.10.1 billion.
The Fixed Telephony and Broadband segment contributed Rs.6.9 billion in external revenue with an operating profit of Rs.2.6 billion.
The Television operation saw its external revenue rise to Rs.4 billion, returning a segment operating profit of Rs.103.7 million compared to a loss in the previous year.
Dialog’s operating profit rose to Rs.12.9 billion, up from Rs.8.2 billion in Q1 2025.
Net finance costs for the quarter decreased to Rs.2 billion from Rs2.5 billion. The group also reported a net foreign exchange loss of Rs.11 million, compared to a much larger loss of Rs.247.3 million in the same quarter last year.
Basic earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter stood at Rs.1.00, up from Rs.0.45 in 2025.
Following the strong performance, the Board of Directors has proposed an interim dividend of Rs.0.70 per share for the financial year 2026.
Shares closed 6.5 percent up at Rs.37.50 rupees on Friday. (Colombo/May 15/2026)
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Friday May 15, 2026 6:05 pm
Friday May 15, 2026 6:05 pm
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka will have to compromise higher economic growth if it chooses to reduce the inflation target, Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe told a Parliament Panel this week.
The Central Bank has been formulating monetary policies based on a 5% medium term inflation target with a flexible exchange rate.
Under a new Act in 2023, the Central Bank is allowed to maintain 3%-7% inflation with the 5% medium term target decided between the Bank and the country’s Finance Ministry under a three-year agreement.
That agreement comes to an end in August and some government officials have already indicated that the inflation target should be reduced when the Finance Ministry enters into the new agreement later this year.
Governor Weerasinghe, however, says such lower targets may need more compromise.
“If we are to reduce the inflation target to 2% next year onwards, we have to very strictly tighten the monetary policy, raise interest rates unnecessarily to bring down current inflation and 5% to 2%,” Weerasinghe told the Parliament Committee on Public Finance on Thursday.
“I think that is not growth supporting. So for country like us to balance the growth and inflation, it has to be a balance between both. And we can achieve a low inflation at compromising the growth.”
“If we achieve a slightly higher inflation that will slightly support growth. So that’s where we have a consultation with the Ministry of Finance and the government to identify what is the desirable rate of growth for the country from the government’s point of view.”
“So if government says we need 5% growth and the government same says we need 2% inflation that is not consistent at the current growth. We can bring 2% down to 2%, but then we have to raise interest sales value that will have impact on the growth.” (Colombo/May 15/2026)
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Friday May 15, 2026 5:25 pm
Friday May 15, 2026 5:25 pm
ECONOMYNEXT – There was no spot quote for Sri Lanka’s rupee on Friday after trades at 325.10 (low) and 326.00 (high) to the dollar in the day, dealers said, while bond yields closed broadly steady.
The telegraphic transfer rate for the dollar was 325.0000 buying, 332.0000 selling.
A bond maturing on 01.07.2028 closed at 9.70/80 percent, up from 9.65/75 percent.
A bond maturing on 15.12.2028 closed flat at 9.75/85 percent.
A bond maturing on 15.10.2029 closed flat at 9.95/10.00 percent.
A bond maturing on 15.12.2029 closed flat at 9.95/10.05 percent.
A bond maturing on 01.07.2030 closed at 10.12/20 percent, up from 10.05/10 percent.
A bond maturing on 01.10.2032 closed flat at 10.70/80 percent.
A bond maturing on 01.06.2033 closed flat at 10.90/11.00 percent.
A bond maturing on 15.06.2034 closed at 11.17/20 percent, up from 11.10/20 percent. (Colombo/May15/2026)
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