Who is the real Finance Minister of SL?
The Democratic Left Front (DLF) charged yesterday that R. Paskaralingam, former Finance Ministry Secretary in the Premadasa government was masquerading as the incumbent Finance Minister.
The DLF also said that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe must vacate office until the serious charges levelled against Central Bank Governor Arjun Mahendran over the issue of Treasury bonds, are cleared.
DLF Leader, Vasudeva Nanayakkara said that Paskaralingam had proposed that laws in place restricting foreigners and foreign companies from purchasing land should be removed.
Although, a ban cannot be imposed according to international law on foreigners buying land, the previous government had imposed a very high near impossible to pay tax, to discourage any moves to make such purchases, which the present government of the United National Party is attempting to reverse by arbitrarily doling out tax breaks, he explained.
Tax breaks are being given to mixed development projects without Parliament approval, he observed.
Sources of income for the government are dwindling, Nanayakkara added.