News
Ranawaka says deficit an undercount
By Saman Indrajith
Sri Lanka was the only country in the world to have waited until it ran out of foreign reserves to seek IMF assistance, SJB MP Patali Champika Ranawaka told Parliament yesterday.
Participating in the Second reading debate on the 2023 Budget, Ranawaka said: “The World Bank officials too have said so. According to them Sri Lanka is the only country in the world to have done so.
Ranawaka said that the 2023 Budget proposals failed to address the current economic crisis. “According to the figures in the document we have an income of Rs 3,456 billion and the projected expenditure is at Rs 7,879 billion. With some more expenses, we’ll have eight trillion expenditure next year. But that is not the truth. Sri Lanka has another financial liability not included in this Budget. We have treasury bills worth 3,800 billion rupees. That is not added to the eight trillion rupees when the calculation is done, nor the President spoke about that liability when presenting the Budget. So the true figure of the financial liability of this government for the next year would be Rs 11,800 billion. This situation could be explained in layman’s terms – when we earn a rupee, we’ll have to pay Rs 3.40. The treasury bills are not counted in the Budget proposals stating some auditing principles,” Ranawaka said.
Accepting deposits from political parties and independent groups who intend to contest the forthcoming Local Authorities Election ended at 12noon today [19].
Deposits were accepted at respective District Secretariats from 3rd March 2025.
The Elections Commission has announced that the deadline for the accepting of nominations for the LA poll is set to conclude at 12:00 noon tomorrow (20).
It has been reported that the former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon has appeared before the Matara Magistrate’s Court this morning (19),
The former IGP had been evading arrest after the Matara Magistrate’s court had ordered his arrest regarding a shooting incident that took place in front of the W15 Hotel Pelena, Weligama, Matara, in 2023.
The government has begun recovering funds obtained by former Lands and Land Development, Environment and Wildlife Resources Minister SM Chandrasena for the Janatha Lanka Chilli Marketing Limited (JLCML), which he headed, Parliament was informed yesterday.
Agriculture, Livestock, Land, and Irrigation Minister Namal Karunaratne said that as the Chairman of JLCML, Chandrasena had obtained a loan of Rs. 1,275,000 from the Mihintale Govijana Seva Bank in 2001.
The principal of the loan had not been repaid until the end of last year. “After we came to power, we demanded that the loan be settled. Then, we discovered that the interest on the loan had not been paid for the past 24 years, and attempts had been made to have the loan written off. We stopped that and are now in the process of recovering the interest of Rs. 1,975,233 on the loan,” Karunaratne said.
Karunaratne added that JLCML was registered as a company with the Registrar of Companies on March 21, 2001. As Chairman of the company, Chandrasena requested a loan of Rs. 10 million on April 19, 2001, for the purpose of purchasing chillies from farmers in 12 farmer colonies in the Mihintale Agrarian Service area.
The request was approved by the Mihintale Agrarian Service Committee on the same day and referred to the Anuradhapura District Agrarian Operations Committee, which approved it on April 23, 2001. However, the Agriculture Development Commissioner General recommended that a loan of Rs. 1.2 million would suffice for this purpose. JLCML took the loan and failed to repay it until the end of last year. When the matter was raised, the principal was paid, and we are now in the process of recovering the interest that was not paid for the past 24 years,” Karunaratne added.
By Saman Indrajith
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