Opposition-Government battle over economy

By Ashwin Hemmathagama Our Lobby Correspondent
The Government has been repeatedly mentioning that the economy is in sound condition and reserves are very securely and lucratively invested. However, UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake moving yesterday’s adjournment motion accused the Government of robbery."

“On examination of the state of the economy we find that the Government, especially the supposedly independent non-political institution, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), has been consistently providing inaccurate information or suppressing the real prevailing situation of the economy. The Central Bank has been consistently using captive funds, which are in Government control such as EPF, ETF, Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank, National Savings Bank, and Insurance Corporation reserves to buy into minority shares without any perspective planning and without proper return and even in some instances have been having negative net asset values. Therefore, this has incurred billions of losses to the investment made through the working society of this country and taxpayers.
“Furthermore, they have been aiding and abetting foreigners to come in and invest before interest rates are reduced such as in the case of Templeton Fund investing in Treasury bonds.

 The balance of payments of the country seems to be in a precarious position. Trying to remedy the problems has led to a lot of policy backtracking by the Government, some of the policies which were adopted in the last Budget speech in November 2011. To add on to the problem, the Central Bank initiating the hedging scam had a further impact of US$ 162 million plus interest after the country lost its appeal in the Court of Appeal in the UK. What more is in store through the hedging scam is not known but the outlook is bleak,” said Karunanayake.”
In response, Minister of International Monetary Co-operation Dr. SarathAmunugama said: “The member Ravi Karunanayake delivered a hell of a speech. I must make one thing absolutely clear. Having gone in front of the public on 20 occasions, we have gained power and formed a Government. On 22 occasions you have lost elections, which will go up on the forthcoming election. We have the public confidence. But criticisms are welcome as a part of this Government’s policy. Though all these allegations are made, we have addressed these on various occasions with the correct answers commended by some of the newspapers.”