Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera said former President and Kurunegala district MP Mahinda Rajapaksa is trying to distort facts regarding the GSP+ concession.
The Minister responding to the comment made by the former President regarding the GSP+ concession, said that by saying that the ‘Government should not create unrealistic expectations about GSP +’
Rajapaksa is saying that obtaining GSP+ concession is trivial since Sri Lanka is very close to passing the threshold of an upper middle income country. ‘A country has to be classified as ‘upper middle income’ by the World Bank for three consecutive years in order to be no longer eligible for the GPS+’ he said.
“Even if Sri Lanka was to reach that threshold tomorrow, we would still have access to the advantaged of GSP+ for three years, and for one additional year after the decision is taken to withdraw the benefit,” the Minister said.
Samaraweera said Rajapaksa cannot acknowledge that the Unity Government has managed to obtain a formidable boost to Sri Lanka’s economy, in application of Article 4(1) of the GSP+ regulation of 2012, for four years.