State debt rose to 9.5 trillion rupees after revealing hidden dues: PM
Mar 08, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament Tuesday that the island’s debt has now increased to 9.5 trillion rupees after adding hidden government dues which amount to 1,442 billion rupees.
Wickremesinghe, making a special statement in Parliament, said as at end of 2015 the state debt amounted to 8,475 billion rupees or 74.9 percent of GDP.
Prime Minister said a total of 1,209 billion rupees has to be paid this year as debt service payments from which 647 billion rupees as loan repayments and 562 billion rupees as interest payments.
“The debt which had to repay by state owned enterprises have not been included in the state debt. This debt amounts to 1,442 billion rupees.” Wickremesinghe said.
The new debt payments includes CPC 365 billion rupees, Ports 260 billion rupees, SriLankan Airlines 211 billion rupees and EPF and ETF overdue on SLTB 21 billion rupees.
Apart from that departments and ministries have another 58.4 billion rupees in dues, while Ministry of Highways alone has to pay 24 billion rupees.
Related: Sri Lanka finds more hidden dues of past regime: Ravi Karunanayake
Regardless it’s the government that has to pay for them. Unprofitable companies that were looted by former regime cannot pay them back.
Sri Lankas court system takes too long. The FCID or police cannot punish them
SL court system takes a long time even years. The evidence has been offered when the court cases were filed. Final decision is taken after many battles in the courts. If they do not plead guilty then the case will go on till they are cornered
If there is clear evidence why should it take so long ?
Aaaaaaaaaa……small problem dude. Hope you know what Public Finance is?When did SL ever took debt of State Enterprises to its Budget? As a matter of fact when did any country do that? Does US take debt obligations of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to their Budget? ….for the argument’s sake Lets just say we forget the technicalities and focus on substance over legal form. Don’t you think consolidation of debt obligations of SOE’s implies that you should consolidate Revenues and expenses of these SOE’s to Government Budget? Further do you really think Fitch and S&P so dumb that they cannot figure out this??
Court cases take time and there is clear evidence against them. In several people I know sent info to FCID and PRECIFAC.
No one has been proven guilty. They may be on bail but both court cases and investigations against them continue
In a civilised democracy, people are innocent until proven guilty. So it is not denial, it is merely pointing out that there has been no conviction so far.
I my self is waiting to see the how much successful their tax reforms and privatization programs would be. We do need people that can criticize properly instead of the Rajapaksa supporters who are only interested in sabotaging everything or UNPers that praise everything
The corruption is very real. You can go ask any one who worked in Ministry of Justice about the former secretary and NR associates related corruption and how several files disappeared
Or you can ask anyone in the SriLankan or Mihin about corruption of MR’s bro in law how he dragged the profitable Airline to a loss making debt ridden mess.
That’s just a few cases you can find about yourself.
I am not saying the current govt is right but denying the crimes of former regime isn’t going to do much good.
We took down a power hungry army of relatives that were sucking the country dry.
What the current govt can do needs to be seen. They have already increased VAT to 15 percent although I see a lot of experts asking it to be 20 percent.
Regardless that’s the right thing to do alongside the upcoming privatization programs.
SL will be able to come out of the debt trap this year. For regime took loans through SOEs that hid the true size of the debt.
The challange the new govt is going to face is finding someone who is either dumb or had more than enough money to buy a loss making flair line that’s on the verge of bankruptcy and surcingles only thanks to tax payer money
Now it is time for the public to decide whether nepotism and vociferously-alleged corruption and never before seen or dreamt development, trumps an unholy alliance of utmost dishonesty and downright stupidity.