Land Valuation Indicator (LVI) for Colombo District indicated a slowdown on a year-on-year basis, recording a growth rate of 7.1 per cent during the second half of 2023. This slowdown could be observed in all sub-indicators of LVI, namely Residential, Commercial and Industrial LVIs which recorded annual increases of 8.8 per cent, 6.7 per cent and 5.9 per cent, respectively. LVI indicated a deceleration on semi-annual basis as well registering a moderate growth of 2.1 per cent during the second half of 2023, compared to the first half of 2023. This deceleration was largely attributable to the slower increase in Industrial LVI followed by Commercial and Residential LVIs compared to the first half of 2023.

In terms of the provisions of the Financial Transactions Reporting Act, No. 6 of 2006 (FTRA), the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Sri Lanka entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Excise Department of Sri Lanka on January 09, 2024 at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) to exchange information related to investigations and prosecutions of money laundering, terrorist financing and other related crimes.

Mr. J M S N Jayasinghe, Commissioner General of Excise and Mrs. E H Mohotty, then Director, FIU signed the MOU on behalf of the respective institutions in the presence of Dr. P Nandalal Weerasinghe, the Governor of the CBSL, who is also the Chairman of the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) National Coordinating Committee.