- Chief Oppo. Whip Kiriella says only letter of intent tabled for P’ment debate
Chief Opposition Whip and Samagi Jana Balawegaya Parliamentarian, Attorney Lakshman Kiriella said yesterday (27) in the Parliament that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreement has not yet been tabled in the Parliament by the Government, even though the MPs are debating on it for three days.
He revealed this yesterday while speaking during the Parliamentary debate on the IMF EFF agreement which started on Wednesday (26). “The Government has tabled only the letter of intent to the Parliament. They have not tabled the IMF agreement to the Parliament. The agreement is not included in the documents which were tabled in the Parliament by the President and the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies Ranil Wickremesinghe just after receiving the approval of the IMF for the EFF for Sri Lanka. I must say that there is no need for debating an agreement which was not tabled to this House because that agreement is the most important document. The President said earlier that he would summon the Opposition MPs and have a briefing on this IMF agreement. Unfortunately, it also did not happen,” he said.
He also claimed that the current Government must be responsible for the ongoing crisis for not taking steps to go to the IMF asking for their help in the early days of the crisis. “When I questioned former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa during the Budget of 2021, on whether they have decided to go to the IMF, he said ‘no’. If they had taken the support of the IMF, our country would not have been in this condition. I would point out two main mistakes made by the immediate previous Government. The first one is making this country bankrupt and the second one is not taking steps to prevent it when necessary. If they went to the IMF before the bankruptcy was announced, we would not need to obtain the guarantee of all the creditors. If they did so, we would deal only with the IMF,” Kiriella claimed.
The Parliament commenced the debate on the deal reached between Sri Lanka and the IMF on Wednesday and will continue till today (28). The debate started following the special statement made by President Wickremesinghe. The letter of intent and the other documents related to the IMF deal were tabled in the Parliament last month (March) by the President.
On 20 March 2023, the IMF announced that the IMF’s Executive Board had approved Sri Lanka’s programme under the EFF. The programme will allow Sri Lanka to access financing of up to United States Dollars seven billion from the IMF, international financial institutions and multilateral organisations.