New bank account introduced to remit foreign currency earnings
A new bank account termed Special Deposit Account (SDA) has now been introduced for all Sri Lankans living in and outside the country to remit their foreign currency earnings, savings and investments to any bank of their choice in Sri Lanka. It is in the form of Term Deposits either in any designated foreign currency or in Sri Lanka Rupees.
Any Sri Lankan individual resident in or outside Sri Lanka as well as dual citizens, citizens of other States with Sri Lankan origin, non-nationals residents in or outside Sri Lanka, Funds, corporate bodies, associations incorporated/registered outside Sri Lanka and any other well-wishers can open Special Deposit Accounts at any Sri Lankan bank of their preference.
All the regulations related to the new account have been incorporated in the Extraordinary Gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Finance, Economic and Policy Development on April 8th. The notification announces that all interested Sri Lankans and well-wishers accordingly can instruct their foreign banks to transfer their funds to Sri Lanka.
There is no prescribed minimum amount to be deposited. The minimum period of maturity is six (06) months. Higher interest rates than the normal rates offered to foreign currency deposits will be offered at maturity. Accordingly, 1 percent and 2 percent points per annum for SDA with a tenure of 6 months and 12 months respectively will be paid. Funds are freely convertible and repatriable outside Sri Lanka on maturity.
All these accounts are free from taxes and foreign exchange regulations. All such deposits shall be protected under banking secrecy provision and further benefits with the relevant supporting legislations will be introduced with the 2020 Budget.
Acceptable currencies are United States Dollars (USD), Euro, Sterling Pounds, Australian Dollars, Singapore Dollars, Swedish Kroner, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollars, Hong Kong Dollars, Japanese Yen, Danish Kroner, Norwegian Kroner, Chinese Renminbi and New Zealand Dollars.
Further information could be obtained from the websites of the Presidential Secretariat, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka or Sri Lankan overseas missions. All Sri Lankans who are willing to express their solidarity to sustain Sri Lanka’s resilience are invited to this opportunity in support of COVID-19 prevention and social security initiative.
(President’s Media)
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To all r all Sri Lankans living in and outside the country don’t fall on to this. You will loose all your savings. Sri Lankan treasury (banks) politicians and so called executives ( junior clerks) are running out of funds and the world banks are refusing to lend anymore money. So they are trying to trick you with this bogus saving scheme.
They run out of funds to maintain their luxury cars and the life style they acquired by borrowing heavily from foreign and countries and when they cannot pay back this loans they are trying to pick on your hard earned savings.
The previous nonfunctional government headed by the senile Ranil and Pabaya Sirisena sold all assets and from the time of that JR, the country was borrowing money as there is no tomorrow. Now is the pay back time and the lack of earnings from tourism they found a easy way to pinch your money.
Ranjith, your advise is somewhat misplaced I must say.
This is not a local ‘seettu’ (i.e. Ponzi) program that the operator can disappear overnight but the Govt. of Sri Lanka guaranteed program and just to think the GOSL will defraud here is being plain simple-minded in my view.
Just think….
When this is about monies of individuals living in some of the most ‘affluent’ western/developed nations as citizens of those countries (and having consequences thereof if they were to bring up charges in those respective countries against the GoSL for being ‘defraud’)! In short, I expect the deposits aggregation here to be only a ‘cupful’ compared to what the GoSL gets today, or stand to get in the future, from these very foreign countries (and associated entities such as IMF, ADB, UN, etc. etc.) as outright grants, loans, etc.
Having said this, I can see where are coming from – i.e. we have had nothing but bloody massive scale theft (e.g. CB Bond scam) and waste from the former Yahapalanaya GoSL scumbags consisting of all the way down from Ponil, Sira pambaya, down to the junior ministers! I concede the current honchos are not perfect either, but compared that that rotten lot, especially in this COVID-19 calamity that we are in, am I ever glad that those incompetent Yahapalanayas are not in power (as otherwise we would be surpassing the USA and Italy in deaths!).
Kevin Sri Lanka is a corrupted country. When a country is corrupted to this level it is impossible to come out of it.
Greece a more stable country than Sri Lanka was bankrupt over night but rescued the help of European Union.
So the only wa SL come out of going bankrupt is to remit foreign currency earnings.
Admire your comment.
The way you compose your comments without relating facts to racism and governance is an example to all of us.
Two mainstays of SL’s economy, namely tourism and foreign remittances from expatriate workers are significantly impacted by the current pandemic for many more years.
Corruption is galore and truth is pushed beneath the carpet.
As a citizen, I cannot see any way forward from the current set of rulers.
“impossible to come out of it” – Impossibility needs decisive resolutions!
Ranjith dear, if this is how bad Sri Lanka is right now (I am not talking of 2015-2019 when even the Central Bank was robbed by the rulers), then I wonder why you are still living in SL (if you are that is)….because, after all, the rose-garden India is only 20 nautical miles and surely you with your dark skin can blend right into that nation’s COVID-19 wonderful current celebrations and the even more grandeur celebrations still to come! Hahaha…
Ranjith, congratualtions…you just had an undercover poisonous LTTE maggot commending you – for your totally floozy, one-size-fits-all kind of bashing the current Sri Lankan regime! Fully agree with Kevin when he said your comments are very “simplistic” and any such comments that bash this current GOSL, of course these LTTE maggots just love it to glory! After all this maggot says “As a citizen, I cannot see any way forward from the current set of rulers” – for one thing, I highly doubt this maggot is a citizen of SL, but besides that because the current rulers will never give into his racist Tamileelam demand, he just wants Ponil back as his only hope of getting that Tamileelam rests only with Ponil in the Prez job!
Dear Simon,
If you wish to wallow in your own cesspool of racism, please do so.
That is your human right.
Dear Dorine. I don’t live in SL or I am not a Srilanken either. Who want to live in a law less economically crippled
country in debts in trillions of dollars to the world governed by the extremely corrupt politicians. Just tell me
why almost every body wants to emigrate from your lovely country. Only drop outs like you want to be there.
Sour grapes to you. Ha ha ha.
Ranjith, so you admit you are not a Sri Lankan and do not live in Sri Lanka, but somehow you appear to have huge pain about how Sri Lanka is faring these days…hahaha, a good one! I have met many an Eelamist in the www doing just that!
That aside, funny you should mention ‘drop outs’ with confusion reigning in your insane mind where you don’t know the order of magnitude of mega/macro funding vs. an account where expats would deposit their employment earned monies (as Kevin tried to explained to you, fruitlessly it seems)….besides, phew, the atrocious English I see you write here I am sure makes the Queen squirm and scream in the Buckingham Palace! Hahaha…now I am sure you are not working from home these days as toilet cleaners in the west cannot do that – unfortunately! Hahaha…I love it!
Well Dorine if you want to give your hard earned money for these clowns to look after for you go for it. Don’t say I din’t warn you.
Yo Andrada, you being a cesspit LTTE toxic-racist maggot (who wants his own “We Tamils only” separate state – wow, what more racism than that?), unfortunately I may have no choice but to wade into the cesspool to neuter you, but even that I will gladly do if it helps my beloved motherland, of which we patriots, irrespective of party politics, are very, very proud of and will guard every inch of her at every turn, especially from the racist toxic maggots like you.
Dear Simon,
The language and tone of your comment demonstrates deep psychological illness, fear psychosis and insurmountable inferiority complex.
Please seek psychological assistance.
Dear Andrada, thank you for your advise…yes I will do all what you recommended – only if I am assured that my beloved Sri Lanka is going to be liquidated of your type of vile Tamil racist-separatist-terrorist + jihadist mfs for good! OUR proud LION nation of 2600 years is OURS and we will always safeguard it as OURS until we are assured that every single ’em of you Tamil racist-separatist-terrorist + jihadist mfs are “terminated with extreme prejudice” !!! LMSSAO!
A proposal to match income and expenses not in place. Solidarity Requests should come after all home work has been done to totally eliminate political costs but costs adding values.
All I want to know is what are they going to do with this foreign Special Deposit Account (SDA). Are they going to create 100,000 jobs to graduates from thin air and pay there salaries for doing nothing, or pay the luxury live style of idling politicians with huge bellies and small brains travelling in expensive cars and living in palaces.
The inflation will be rocketed and the value of your investment will be plummeted to almost to nothing. This a alternative get some money to bankrupt country when the world banks want lend any more money and the treasury cannot print any more paper money
Ranjith,
Can understand your concern.
Look at it this way:
The tourists brought $s into the country; that’s dissapeared at least for another 2 years till SL is declared a safe destination by WHO.
Foreign worker remittances – drastic reduction to slowing Middle East economies and other economies
Garment export brought $s – that is now zero, will be down until Western Countries begin to move maybe towards the end of the year
Agriculture export – the big item was tea; maybe not much of change
So, where is the GOSL going to get the $s from?
It needs to buy oil, some essential food, equipment (like IT stuff), medicines, construction material which goes into new high rise.
Import of non essential items like luxury vehicles continue even now.
GOSL need big $s to pay loans; overseas companies and workers doing projects need $s to send home.
It is indeed a nightmare.
Stupid bloody MORONS – Special Deposit Account (SDA) is not a set up for Govt of SL to just dab its fingers and draw money from it and spend as it pleases! It is an account that the expats can use to deposit (at certain incentives provided) and draw-down as they please, including completely pulling out and taking their money back abroad!
The problem with you half-educated (“drop outs” as one uneducated mf mentioned here when attacking someone who is a SL Patriot! hehehe) narrow-minded mfs (many who are die-hard Eelamsists masquerading here under Sinhela names like “Fernando” “Pereara” “Ranjith” “Gamage” etc.) is that you are determined to see this OUTSTANDINGLY POPULAR Gota Prez fail and to do that, you come here and utter all kinds of childish, totally ILLITERATE cock-&-bull nonsense!
So glad to see that the SL masses do not read your sh*t and get brainwashed! LMAO!
SO Mr Andrada . Now your easy to obtain liquid assets you enjoyed doing nothing is exhausting and evaporating like tourism ( employing men and women as waiters and waitresses to the rest of the world and feeding the rich food with quality food depriving our children of that) and selling foreign workers ( like modern day saves working in middle east in appalling conditions like their hands and heads get cut off slightest mistake
So now you want to hand our saving fro world famous bank and investment banks which is highly regulated by the governments to this cow boy banks whose chairmen recently has eloped with millions of Rupees(toilet paper) for you to by oil for your cars and food etc. Barking madness.
So when this money evaporate in few years like buying oil, food and medicine what are you going to do.
.
MR Kevin. I give up with you mate. I tried to educate you nut it is like pouring water to a ducks back. Good luck and keep taking you tablets.
“Ranjith” (God knows who this bugger is? LOL)….for someone who professed to say that “I am not Sri Lankan and I don’t live in Sri Lanka” – WOW, you certainly have a lot of pain about Sri Lanka I can see from your postings, mostly anti-current GOSL postings!
Ada ennada p*ndey, who are are trying to fool here? Not me you p*ndey, as I can smell a www foul eelamist (or a Jihadist) 10 miles away! LOLZZZ
Ada “Ranjith” (LOL), your game is up here sob so I strongly suggest you disappear and come back with another ID – and then we SL patriots will cut your b&lls off once again, and again, and again, …hahaha…. yes we love this game too as this allows us to show to the SL masses that SL is still under threat from eelamist and jihadist sh*t like you and that way we get to promote our own agenda (i.e. the SL Patriotic platform, which is irrespective of party politics but glued together out of sheer love for our Motherland).
Hohoho…so funny that you want to “educate” Kevin? Come again, you want to “educate” ??? LOL
Stupid wastrel, who are you here to “educate” with your simplistic-minded theories and bottom-level English which you write here (as I pointed out before, which tells us that you have never had any formal education beyond grade school likely!) Hahaha…
Listen you anti-Sri Lankan wastrel, some of us here are folks who left SL and went abroad to graduate from some of the best of the best Universities in the west with Masters and PhD and here we have you, a wannabe pathetic (and fraudulent) intellectual LOL, out to “educate” us here uh?
Just don’t be bitter wastrel……because unlike us, you cannot work from home these days as toilet cleaners in the white-man’s west cannot work from home! Hahaha….I love it!
Is SFIDA deposit interest subject to with holding tax?