Sri Lanka cabinet, opposition leader, committee chairs will see IMF deal: minister
ECONOMYNEXT – The contents of Sri Lanka’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be revealed to the cabinet of ministers, the leader of the opposition, and the chairs of parliamentary committees in due course, a cabinet spokesman said.
Minister Ramesh Pathirana told reporters on Tuesday September 13 that the government does not wish to hide the agreement from anyone as claimed by some members of the opposition.
“All the facts and provisions will be presented to the cabinet, the opposition leader and the chairmen of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) and the Committee on Public Finance. There is no concealment,” said Pathirana.
Sri Lanka, going through an unprecedented balance of payment crisis, reached staff-level agreement with the IMF for a four-year 2.9 billion US dollar extended fund facility (EFF) on August 31 pending IMF board approval.
Several opposition legislators including main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Harsha de Silva have said the IMF deal be tabled in parliament.
Related:
Sri Lanka IMF deal should be be tabled in parliament: Harsha
The MP was recently appointed chairman of the Committee on Public Finance.
Central Bank chief Nandalal Weerasinghe had previously said that Sri Lanka had no practice of revealing IMF programmes to parliament early and tax changes can only be revealed to the parliament at the time of implementation.
However, Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said that Weerasinghe had informed him that he has no objections to the agreement being tabled provided the Minister of Finance is agreeable to it.
Related:
No objection from Sri Lanka central bank chief to tabling IMF deal: Speaker
(Colombo/Sep13/2022)
