News
Sajith: Rating downgrade will make borrowing more expensive
Cabraal: Opposition deriving perverse pleasure at the expense of people
By Saman Indrajith
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa in a special statement to Parliament yesterday, said the country was in the midst of a severe financial crisis.
“Moody’s Investors Service recently downgraded Sri Lanka’s sovereign credit rating by two notches, stating that our country would be hard-pressed to secure funding to service its huge foreign debt. On Sept 28, Moody’s downgraded Sri Lanka from “B2” (high credit risk) to “CAA1″ (very high credit risk). Now we are in the company of countries such as Angola, Mali, Barbados, Gabon and Iraq. This down grading would have a severe blow for the economy which needs to borrow around four billion US dollars from 2020 to 2025. As at August, our foreign reserves were at 7.4 billion US dollars. In that context, the Government repaid a billion US dollars due on international sovereign bond (ISB). That is not a move favourable for the country’s economy,” he said.
Premadasa said that the need of the hour was urgent economic reforms through collective efforts.
The Opposition leader said that the downgrading of Sri Lanka by Moody’s, which, he said, would make borrowing in the international market more expensive and harder to obtain for Sri Lanka.
He said owing to the downgrade interest rates Sri Lanka would have to pay for Bonds and loans would go up and it would be very hard for us to raise money to settle loans.
Responding to Opposition Leader Premadasa, State Minister of Money & Capital Market and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal said: “When this issue was raised, my mind went back to 2007. We were trying to raise funds by issuing bonds. The then Opposition leader and his supporters did their utmost to prevent us raising funds. They surrounded HSBC and threatened not to buy the bonds which they would not honour under a future government of theirs. Later, when I travelled overseas to bring foreign investors, I saw each of them had a copy of a document sent from here telling them not to give funds to us. That was the time we were in a critical situation as a fierce war was raging. We somehow managed to win on both war and economic fronts. It seems that the Opposition is deriving perverse pleasure as the expense of people. that we are confronting challenges. They may be dreaming of that we will fail to manage the economy. Trust me we will deny the Opposition that pleasure. We shall prevail!”
The Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) yesterday accused the government of seeking to use the proposed Protection of the State from Terrorism Act (PSTA) to suppress popular political activity, claiming that some of its provisions were more repressive than those of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
FSP Education Secretary Pubudu Jayagoda told a media briefing, in Nugegoda, that the definition of terrorism in the Bill was so broad that it could be used to label almost any form of popular political activity as terrorism.
He said the Bill’s approach to defining terrorism was based largely on attempts to compel a government, or an international organisation, to do, or refrain from doing something, rather than on internationally recognised criteria, such as killings, causing serious bodily harm, kidnapping or acts intended to spread terror among the public.
Jayagoda also alleged that the Bill transferred substantial powers from the judiciary to the executive, while extending powers of arrest, investigation and detention to the armed forces, in addition to the police.
He claimed that the government had sought to portray the Bill as a replacement for the PTA while retaining or introducing provisions that could facilitate political victimisation and repression.
The FSP also questioned the government’s decision to proceed with the Bill, despite having previously sought public views on an earlier draft.
Jayagoda said a draft had been published earlier this year, with the period for public submissions ending on February 28, but the Bill subsequently gazetted was essentially the same draft with some provisions rearranged.
Jayagoda also referred to a letter reportedly sent by Attorney-at-Law Saliya Peiris, a member of a Committee, chaired by President’s Counsel Rienzie Arsecularatne, that had been appointed to draft the legislation. He said Peiris had stated, in the October 06 letter, that changes had been made to the draft prepared by the Committee.
“This means that even the Committee, appointed to prepare the Bill, was a deception,” Jayagoda alleged.
He said that the PSTA was fundamentally similar to the Anti-Terrorism Bill introduced by the previous government, in 2023, which the National People’s Power (NPP) opposed and challenged in court.
“If the NPP opposed that Bill then and is now bringing the same legislation before Parliament, the government must explain its position,” he said.
Jayagoda called on NPP MPs to oppose the PSTA in Parliament and urged trade unions and other groups to build a broad public movement against the legislation.
He challenged the government to an open debate on the Bill.
Former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa was yesterday remanded until 13 October after being produced before the Colombo Magistrate’s Court following her arrest by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).
Shiranthi, wife of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was arrested at her residence on Poorwarama Road, Kirulapone, after CIABOC officers recorded a statement from her for nearly two hours.
According to the CIABOC, the arrest was made over allegations that Rs. 10 million obtained from the National Savings Bank through the Siriliya Saviya organisation was misappropriated.
The money was allegedly obtained to provide a Computed Tomography (CT) scanner to the children’s hospital. Investigators allege that the scanner was not provided and that the funds were instead unlawfully used.
CIABOC is investigating alleged offences under the Public Property Act and corruption-related provisions in connection with the transaction and other financial activities involving Siriliya Saviya, which was headed by Rajapaksa.
Rajapaksa returned to Sri Lanka on Monday night on a flight from Malaysia after travelling overseas for medical treatment. She left for Singapore on 16 September after being admitted to a private hospital in Colombo on 15 September following an illness.
She had been due to appear before the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) on 13 October in connection with its investigation into the financial affairs of Siriliya Saviya.
Meanwhile, her lawyers filed an anticipatory bail application before the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court on Monday, seeking an order preventing her arrest in connection with the FCID investigation.
Former National Savings Bank (NSB) Chairman Pradeep Kariyawasam was yesterday granted bail by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court following his arrest by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).
Kariyawasam, husband of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, was arrested in connection with the Bribery Commission’s investigation into the ‘Siriliya Saviya’ account linked to former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa.
The investigation concerns financial activities involving the Siriliya Saviya initiative, which was headed by Rajapaksa, wife of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
CIABOC is continuing investigations into the alleged financial irregularities relating to the account.
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