Need for dollars

‘Bankrupt Lanka calls upon diaspora to send cash’ is a boxed news item in the Sunday Island -17.04.2022. The news item, with a photograph of the Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe (NW), sets out to lay their case for the title of the news item with the assurances that the money will not be mismanaged. The final paragraph reads ‘Weerasinghe’ s appeal has so far been greeted with scepticism from Sri Lankans abroad. “We don’t mind helping, but we can’t trust the government with our cash,” a Sri Lankan doctor in Australia said, asking for anonymity.’

Can you imagine what would have happened if Gotabaya Rajapaksa addressed the nation on this matter soon after he came into presidency? At a time when there was an unprecedented enthusiasm for him. People were organising ‘shramadanas’ to clean beaches, parks, etc., villagers and town folk were cultivating their gardens, walls were filled with art work. We were itching to help this nation in whatever way we could. We were so certain that we will be the pivotal point for the world. People would have emptied their savings. Families would have brought their gold and jewellery to the Treasury. A river of foreign currency would have flooded our banks.

And if that had happened, what would have been our situation today? Unfortunately, it would have been the same! For all those dollars and gold would have vanished. Disappeared. Unaccounted for. No one would have known what had happened. No one would have been held accountable/responsible. So, thank the lord for small mercies.

Hence the concerns of our expats to send dollars is quite legitimate and despite the reassurances of NW, it is doubtful whether our expats would be willing to risk their hard-earned money on what might be a fool’s errand. However, we do need the dollars and Sri Lankan expatriates are in an excellent position to help their/our country if we could come up with a scheme where they feel that the money they send will be safe and the public will benefit from it.

One of the suggestions that has been floating around on the social media network is to ask expats to send dollars to their loved ones and relatives in Sri Lanka. At least with this method those in the country are guaranteed of getting a rupee value for the money that is being sent and the expats know what is happening to their dollars.

This certainly is a doable proposition. So, those overseas could send say a thousand dollars –which is less than the cost of a return air ticket from most countries. It is also likely that most of the relatives here are comparatively well off, being looked after by those overseas, so it is unlikely that they will have a dire need to convert these dollars into cash immediately. So as a further step, the banks could offer to deposit the equivalent of the dollar sum and an extra say 5000 or 10,000 rupees as an added bonus for every thousand dollars or so as a fixed deposit with a special premium interest rate. Or, a similar scheme.

In this way we will be able to get the dollars we need and also keep the money in the bank – out of circulation, which I have been given to understand is what needs to happen now, in this present economy.

Dr. Sumedha S. Amarasekara