Govt. dismisses Opposition’s claims on loss of reserves
Wednesday, 18 March 2015 00:00
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By Ashwin Hemmathagama Our Lobby Correspondent
The Opposition’s effort to speculate that $ 124 million worth of foreign reserves were being used to meet Government expenditure was shot down yesterday in Parliament.
Rejecting these charges, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe confirmed that foreign reserves were at $ 6,175.3 million last Friday and no efforts had been made to release any of them.
According to Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, the Leader of the Opposition, Nimal Siripala de Silva, had been badly misled by somebody.
“I can’t take it anywhere even if these foreign reserves were withdrawn from the Central Bank,” he said in response to a statement made by Leader of the Opposition Nimal Siripala de Silva concerning section 23 (2) of the Standing Orders.
In his statement, the Opposition Leader charged the Government over rising foreign exchange levels and the loss it could create, especially for businesses.
“The US dollar has increased to Rs. 132.90 as a result of releasing $ 124 million worth of foreign reserves held at the Central Bank. On top of this a few days ago a questionable transaction led to the issue of Rs. 10 billion worth of bonds. We need to know the requirement for these funds. It is reported that an appointment was also not provided for the primary dealers who want to discuss the economic situation in the country,” said MP de Silva.
In response, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe confirmed an appointment was fixed for 23 March allowing the primary dealers to meet the Government.
