News
IMF loan will help bring down interest rates – CBSL
By Saman Indrajith
Interest rates could be relaxed with a cash infusion via the IMF, the Central Bank officials, including Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, told the Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) recently.
Dr. Weerasinghe said high interest rates had been adopted to limit growth to prevent the need for greater foreign exchange given the dwindling reserves.
“With a cash infusion via the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) from IMF, interest rates can once again be relaxed, and the market will once again have an opportunity to expand,” Weerasinghe said.
The Chairman of the CoPF said the Committee was committed to providing bipartisan support to the reforms put forward by the IMF.
The Committee is chaired by MP Dr. Harsha De Silva said that regardless of political allegiances, its members will stand by the reforms promulgated by the IMF and being executed by the Central Bank (CB). This comes in the wake of a Central Bank confirmation that they are confident of having an actual IMF first tranche disbursement within the 1st Quarter of 2023.
CoPF inquired about the severe social implications of such steep mechanisms to adhere to IMF conditions. The CB said the IMF was wary of the social impact to vulnerable communities and had proposed certain safeguards such as expenditure ceilings to negate those effects.
When the question of alternatives to an IMF bailout were discussed, the CB stressed that no other international financing/funding institute was willing to partner with Sri Lanka on its debt management unless they saw an IMF partnership materialize first.
With the ostensible debt treatment measures that an IMF programme accompanies, it reassures international agencies of Sri Lanka’s credibility to once more partner with the country for future ventures including debt management.
The Paddy Marketing Board has approximately 115,000 metric tonnes of paddy stocks purchased from farmers, which are currently stored in the Board’s warehouses, and it has been planned to retain a sufficient buffer stock from these reserves and sell the remaining quantity in order to provide the necessary storage space and financial resources for the purchase of paddy from farmers during the upcoming Yala season.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to sell the aforementioned paddy stocks
following a formal tender procedure.
The Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 provides the legal provisions for regulating and promoting the export agriculture sector in this country.
Taking into consideration administrative changes and sectoral developments that have taken place over time, approval was granted at the Cabinet Meetings held on 2023-09-04 and 2025-08-11 to amend the said Act, which has not been updated for over 30 years.
The proposed amendments are intended to amend the designations of the Head of the Department of Export Agriculture and other officials, and to provide a clearer definition of the term “the export agricultural crop.”
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to publish in the Government Gazette the Draft Export Agriculture Promotion (Amendment) Bill, prepared in all three languages by the Legal Draftsman to amend the Export Agriculture Promotion Act, No. 46 of 1992, and thereafter submit the same to Parliament for its concurrence
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Cabinet approves sale of Paddy stocks held by the Paddy Marketing Board
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