Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry says that the decision to suspend the payment of interest and installments for loans taken from foreign countries was made after a long investigation with the intervention of the officials of the Central Bank, the officials of the Ministry of Finance, the heads of the government and all the responsible people.

The Minister points out that the decision was only announced to the country by the Governor of the Central Bank, and therefore it is absolutely unacceptable to accuse the Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nandalal regarding the suspension of loan payments.

Ali Sabry said this while joining the budget debate, clarifying the comments made by the members of the opposition parties during the budget debate yesterday regarding the Governor of the Central Bank.

Sabry states that if any party wants to remove Nandalal Weerasinghe from the post of Central Bank governor, he is ready to resign instead, and that it is a big crime to lose a resource like Weerasinghe at a time when the country is facing a crisis.

The Minister says that as the decisions taken by him as the Governor of the Central Bank have benefited the people who are living their lives amid many challenges, the Minister says that he requests everyone to refrain from jumping behind the officials who take such bold decisions.

Nandalal Weerasinghe had recommended Sabry’s name for the Ministry of Finance even after Ranil Wickramasinghe became President.

Arjun Aloysius, director of W.M. Mendis Company, has been summoned to appear before the Colombo Magistrate’s Court. Colombo Additional Magistrate T.N. Ilangasinghe had issued this order.

These summons have been issued according to a complaint made by the Inland Revenue Department that Mendis Company has committed a fraud by defaulting on the payment of a tax amount of 167 crore rupees.

Arjun Aloysius, who is also named as one of the main accused in the Central Bank bond scam, is also the owner of Perpetual Treasuries.

Earlier, Mendis Company’s alcohol production activities were also suspended, but later the relevant ban was lifted by the court.

Muditha Peiris, Chairman of Litro Company, says that gas prices will be further reduced from next Monday. The chairman says that this revision is done in relation to the decrease in the prices of the world market.

According to the new amendment, the price of a 12.5 kg domestic gas cylinder has been reduced by Rs.246 and its new price is Rs.4664. The price of a 5 kg cylinder has been reduced by Rs 99 to Rs 1872 and the price of a 2.3 kg cylinder has been reduced by Rs 45 to Rs 869.

It was pointed out yesterday by the ministers of the opposition as well as the ruling party that even though before declaring Sri Lanka as a bankrupt country in April last year Nandalal Weerasinghe, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, should have informed the Parliament about the financial situation and sought the approval of the Parliament, which has the financial power of the country, no such thing had happened.

That was during the parliamentary debate on the interim budget.

Lakshman Kiriella (SJB)-“Yesterday, the Governor of the Central Bank came to the Parliament to give a speech. In his speech, he said that when he took office, the Central Bank had only 20 million American dollars. I asked if Parliament was informed of this situation. But there was no answer! Because the ‘power of money’ belongs to the Parliament. Everyone has acted irresponsibly.”

Bandula Gunawardena (SLPP) – “I also agree that the central bank should present the matter to the parliament. It was not presented that way! So this Honorable House has to examine the question of whether the Central Bank has fulfilled its responsibility in this way.

Vajira Abeywardena (UNP) – “The central bank has no power to bankrupt the country. They could have called the representatives of the parliament in April and told them that there is such a problem in the country, what should be done. Then this whole parliament should have got together to take a decision that day”

The voting related to the second reading of the 2022 Amended Appropriation Bill presented to Parliament by President Ranil Wickramasinghe is scheduled to be held today (02).

The debate regarding this interim budget started yesterday (31) and it is scheduled to be held today.

After the debate, voting is scheduled to take place in the afternoon.

An extraordinary gazette notification has been issued imposing maximum retail prices for 43 types of medical devices including contact lenses and stents.

This gazette announcement issued by the Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella is effective from yesterday (01).

Read the gazette

President Ranil Wickramasinghe has established 08 task forces consisting of heads of the public and private sectors to create good investment opportunities and secure investors.

The empowerment of this task force was held yesterday (01) at the President’s Office under the chairmanship of President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake.

Below is the announcement issued by the Presidential Media Division in this regard.

The 2022 revised budget had proposed to reduce the mandatory retirement age to 60 years and retire all employees of government and semi-government institutions who have exceeded that age from December 31.

However, the Ministry of Public Administration says that this does not apply to the services whose retirement age has been revised due to human resource needs and circular instructions will be issued in this regard with the approval of the Cabinet.

Below is the announcement issued by the ministry.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe addressing the event in which the government of Sri Lanka entered a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today (01) said he considers this to be the beginning of a new economic era where the country could be committed to a very competitive export-oriented industry.

The President noted that the beginning will be difficult, but more progresses can be made as the country moves forward. The approach will also make it easier for Sri Lanka to sustain its social services and to look after vulnerable groups, the President pointed out.

Reaching an agreement with the IMF will be a clear proof of the government’s commitment to create a better life for the people, he emphasised. The IMF’s support would be extremely important to recover Sri Lanka from the bankruptcy and the difficulty of paying foreign debt, he added.

On a personal note, the President added that when he was born, Sri Lanka had no debt and that the country had sufficient reserves to lend to the United Kingdom which was recovering from war times.

MIAP