COLOMBO: Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe stressed that if a Government is not appointed in two weeks he will step down from his position.
Speaking at a press conference in Colombo yesterday he said that without a political settlement the current economic situation will further deteriorate sharply.
“The economic situation in the country will become worse if political stability is not established soon.”
“We only have liquid foreign reserves to meet our imports for only around one week and if a stable government is not formulated soon the country will go back to its earlier scenario where there were 12 hour power cuts, longer queues for fuel, gas, shortage of drugs and similar issues.”
He said that when he took over the post of Governor CBSL before President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s residence in Mirihana was attacked.
“When I presumed things would improve, the attack on peaceful protesters in Galle Face also took place. This attack on peaceful protesters should never have taken place.”
“On top of that now there is no government and I cannot implement the economic bailout plan which was successfully put into place recently. Hence, if I don’t not see the formation of a new government within the next two months I will leave this post.”
He once again reiterated that there are financial crises but he ensured that the salaries of government servants as well as pensioners and other payments could be paid but only up to a certain time frame. “We need to raise local capital and for this the country has to revert to the old tax structure which was done away with in 2019. In addition we will also have to defer some of the payments due from the government to various local sectors for a short period.”
The governor however said that the current political stalemate and unrest in the country would not have a major negative impact for the ongoing the negations with IMF and other donor agencies from whihc Sri Lanka expectes to raise foreing capital.
