A crisis has arisen regarding foreign exchange reserves in the country now, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Politburo Member, Sunil Handunneththi said yesterday.
He said as a result, there will be a strong impact on import of essentials and payment of debt in the near future. He made these observations while addressing a press conference.
”When the government came into power, they said that they knew how to earn foreign exchange,” Handunnetti said. “They very clearly said, that they knew how to earn money.Finance State Minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal said on several occasions that there was no financial crisis. Some other Ministers followed him and reiterated the same sentiment.”
He added that they could see what they said was that they knew how to find money for themselves. He added that however, there is a question on whether they understand how to find money for the country to pay off the debts. Dollars are required for import of food items, fuel and bank transactions. A problem arose in getting the crude oil ship that arrived in the country on 5 July and be released. A ship carrying petrol will arrive on 22 of this
month too.”In the future this risk will worsen considerably,” Handunnetti said.”The main reason for this is the fact that the Petroleum Corporation owes the Bank of Ceylon and the People’s Bank 3.3 billion dollars by May 2021. They are preparing to sell our most valuable assets to get rid of the debt burden.”