• Fate of EPF/ETF, unemployment, closure of businesses, forex mgt. to be discussed  

The main Parliamentary Opposition party, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) is to discuss the shortcomings of the Anti-Corruption Bill, the domestic debt restructuring process and its consequences, and other economic issues related to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the visiting IMF delegation today (31).

The IMF delegation is led by the IMF’s Deputy Managing Director Kenji Nakamura.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (30), SJB Parliamentarian Kabir Hashim said that the SJB will question the IMF, particularly about the decisions that are to be taken on the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and the Employees’ Trust Fund (ETF), if they seek domestic debt restructuring. 

“We are to meet an IMF delegation tomorrow (31). In that meeting, we will be mainly focusing on this controversial local debt restructuring process. Earlier, the Government said that they are not going to restructure local debt but now what they say is completely different,” he said. Hashim further added that they are going to discuss the importance of making a programme to boost economic growth while discussing other economic issues prevailing in the country at the moment, such as unemployment, the closure of small and medium-scale businesses and the management of foreign exchange, and to inquire as to whether the IMF has been consulted by the Government in this regard. 

“The Government is still taking measures to stabilise the fallen economy by doing various things such as increasing the interest rates to reduce inflation, imposing import restrictions to manage foreign exchange, etc. But, we have understood the importance of shifting to boosting economic growth. Hence, we are to discuss the solutions that they can propose to us regarding parallel issues such as people losing their jobs, businesses closing, etc., and to inquire as to whether they had discussed these matters with the Government in advance,” he said. He further noted that they also hope to raise issues with the shortcomings of the Anti-Corruption Bill and the need for a new Government with a mandate to implement the reforms recommended by the IMF.