President says will amend Sri Lanka-Singapore FTA if needed

Saturday, 15 September 2018 00:19 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Fuel price formula may be revised in Budget proposals, says President

The Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement will be revised if the expert committee appointed deems it harmful to the country’s economy, President Maithripala Sirisena said yesterday.

Speaking to newspaper editors and electronic media heads, Sirisena said that he would take steps to revise any clause in the FTA which had come under serious criticism from different interest groups and was determined to have negative effects on the country’s economy.

“I will take responsibility to carry out recommendations of the committee to revise any clause in the Sri Lanka-Singapore FTA. If they report a serious issue with the agreement, I will act accordingly and take necessary action,” he said.

Sirisena stressed that it was a responsibility of the intellectuals in the country to highlight any clause or issue that may have a negative impact on country’s economy and local industries.

Speaking of the fuel price formula recently adopted by the Government to revise fuel prices as per world market prices, the President said that a decision would have to be taken on the continuous implementation of the pricing method.

“There are severe criticisms against the pricing formula; even the bus associations met me regarding the issue. Whether we are going to continue this, revise this or have a new mechanism to determine prices will be decided with the Budget proposals this time,” he said.