Courtesy The Daily News

Govt reached only an understanding with IMF

Leader of the House Susil Premajayantha yesterday said in Parliament that the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Staff had only reached an understanding and not signed an agreement.

He was responding to a question by NPP and JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake under Standing Order 27(2). Raising the question MP Dissanayake asked the government to table the IMF staff level agreement in Parliament since the public should be aware about the agreement signed with the IMF. The Sri Lankan economy has been facing one of its worst ever economic crises and the country’s economy is likely to shrink more than 8 percent in 2022 and the inflation has exceeded 60 percent. The budget deficit10 percent. The government revenue-to-GDP has declined to 8 per cent. Under this situation, the country cannot move forward. So the government is confident that an IMF-supported programme would restore the country’s economy,”the Minister said.

The Minister said the agreement reached with the IMF staff had not been published on previous occasions and that has been the practice and it would be published after it was approved by the IMF executive board.

Minister Premajayantha further said the government came to an agreement on extended loan with the IMF for four years.

Accordingly, it has been proposed to increase the primary account of the government from minus 4 to 2.5 from the Gross Domestic Product, to increase the state revenue to 15 percent from the GDP by 2026.It has also been proposed to restructure loss-making State entities, to strengthen the financial sector and eliminate fraud and corruption. The agreement will be presented to the Cabinet and Parliament after it is approved by the IMF executive board. But no agreement has been reached so far with the IMF,” he said.