Browsing VR Insights by Issue Date
Now showing items 41-60 of 73
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Education and Health in Budget 2016: Grand promises don’t bode well for governance
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2015-11-24)Governments make attractive promises when presenting the Budget. However, successive Budgets have shown that making promises is easier than keeping them. The extent to which the present government will be able to keep its ... -
More of the Same: Budget 2016 increases protection and dependence on trade taxes
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2015-12-08)Sri Lanka was amongst the early movers in trade and economic liberalisation in South Asia. However, this initiative was somewhat backtracked upon in the past 10 years. This insight points out that, despite the claims, the ... -
Sri Lanka’s post war growth: Still stuck in an unsustainable strategy
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2016-01)Sri Lanka has been driving post-war growth in boom and bust cycles on the trade deficit; and fiscal measures have been used, especially spending on construction, to offset the bust cycles. This insight explains how this ... -
Exchange rate management: politics trumps professionalism
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2016-01-26)Most people in a country don’t understand the intricacies of exchange rate management. Nevertheless, actions in this regard have significant implications for the economic stability, growth and overall success of the economy, ... -
Sri Lanka’s tea industry – too long in adolescence, it’s time to grow up
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2016-02-26)Tea sector wage negotiations periodically go into deadlock. There are political reasons for this situation, but also an overarching economic one: global tea prices have declined – as it periodically happens – and the ... -
Trade in Services: Sri Lanka needs to pull up its socks
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2016-03-09)Two previous Verité Insights titled “Sri Lanka missing world’s biggest trade party and its in her backyard” & “Trade Agreements that don’t deliver the goods” published in May and June 2013 pointed out that Sri Lanka is ... -
Trade in Services: Unearthing the devil in the details
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2016-04-06)In 2016, Sri Lanka began its first round of negotiations on an Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ECTA) with India. This envisages liberalising trade in services. The lack of information on what was being ... -
Economic mismanagement is a governance problem – it needs governance solutions
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2016-05-11)Elected officials and selected bureaucrats are given a huge amount of power to act on behalf of the public – modern democracies function on this basis: that citizens hand over their power to elected representatives. But ... -
Are Sri Lanka’s exports to India overdependent on concessions?
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2016-05-26)Sri Lanka’s exports as a share of GDP has declined from 33% in 2000 to 13% in 2015. One of the solutions has been to diversify Sri Lanka’s markets. This is because over 50% of Sri Lanka’s exports go to the EU and the United ... -
Cigarette Taxes Need Parliament’s Oversight
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2016-06-02)Every year, on the 31st of May, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and partners mark World No Tobacco Day. This day is set apart to highlight the health risks associated with tobacco use and to advocate for effective ... -
Trademark Registration: From Colombo to Madrid
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2016-11-30)The Madrid Protocol is a global mechanism for registering trademarks outside one’s home country. It reduces the time, inconvenience and cost incurred by companies attempting to ensure international recognition and protection ... -
Fixing Sri Lanka’s Revenue Problem is a Priority
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2017-02-10)Taxes are the key source of government revenue. Normally, tax share as a percentage of GDP is expected to increase as per capita GDP rises. This Insight shows that in Sri Lanka, this is not the case; the country’s per ... -
The Sri Lankan economy needs a better bureaucracy, not just a better Cabinet of Ministers
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2017-05)There are several causes to the problems facing Sri Lanka’s economy. The problem of bureaucratic inefficiency is exemplified by this case study: finding information about trade regulations is a significant barrier to ... -
තොරතුරු හිඟයෙන් පීඩා විඳින ශ්රී ලාංකික අපනයනකරුවෝ
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2017-07)There are several causes to the problems facing Sri Lanka’s economy. The problem of bureaucratic inefficiency is exemplified by this case study: finding information about trade regulations is a significant barrier to ... -
Who is Responsible for ‘Alternative Facts’ on Cigarette Taxation?
(2017-07)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 ... -
The new Ministers of Finance: Will their budget keep its promises?
(Colombo: Verite Research, 2017-08)An analysis of past budgets revel 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 ... -
අයවැය පොරොන්දු කඩන සම්ප්රදායට අළුත් ඇමතිලා තිතක් තියයිද? = The new Ministers of Finance: Will their budget keep its promises?
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2017-08)An 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 ... -
Sri Lanka’s Economic Competitiveness: A Microcosm of its Politics?
(2018-03)The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), ranks the competitiveness of economies. The GCI score is calculated using two types of indicators: objective (or measurable) indicators and sentiment (or subjective) indicators. ... -
The Hidden Side of Cigarette Pricing
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2018-07)This insight examines how 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, ... -
Tobacco Policy: Mitigating the Influence of Vested Interests=දුම්කොළ ප්රතිපත්තිය: ඇල්මැති පාර්ශ්වයන්ගේ බලපෑම අවම කිරීම
(Colombo: Verité Research, 2018-07)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 ...