President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has written to the Government of Japan appealing for assistance of USD three billion to address the country’s financial meltdown.
Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP Harsha De Silva told parliament today that there has been a request for the letter to be re sent without stipulating the amount which is needed.
He told parliament that the President has apologised to Japan for the debacle with the Light Railway Train project. In 2020, the President cancelled the 1. 5 billion project which Japan was to fund because it was not a cost- effective way to address Colombo’s traffic congestion.
De Silva also appealed to Finance and Justice Minister Ali Sabry to allocate funds to keep the 1990 Suwa Seriya ambulance service running.
He raised the alarm about the precarious level of Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves which have reduced to USD 50 million and said the rupee will depreciate even more when reserves keep falling. ‘We will go beyond bankruptcy’ , he said. ‘Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse mocked the Yahapalana government when the rupee lost its value by 50 rupees when it fell from 130 to 180 rupees to the dollar and that too was during the short time of the constitutional crisis. But in the two years since this government took over the rupee has lost its value by more than 100 percent’.
Today’s official exchange rate is 371 rupees to the US dollar. The unofficial rate is more than 400 rupees. Food inflation today is at 47 percent.
De Silva asked the government to call for an international donor conference to help Sri Lanka out of the economic crisis. The country’s interest and exchange rates and inflation have been soaring wildly. Interest rates which are at 25 percent is causing hardship for businesses especially small and medium- term ones. ‘It is essential that steps are taken to stabilize these’, he said.
Meanwhile, the government is yet to appoint financial and legal advisers to restructure the country’s debt for its program with the International Monetary Fund and De Silva emphasized that it is important to appoint experienced and competent people and not those operating on franchises. Sri Lanka’s debt of USD 51 billion will have to be restructured in a series.
