Finance Ministry signs SCI with several SOEs as per IMF deal

• State Minister Shehan Semasinghe reveals 13 SOEs made Rs. 1 t loss
• Insists Treasury can no longer fund loss-making SOEs at the cost of people and amidst crisis

The Finance Ministry on Tuesday signed Statements of Corporate Intent (SCI) involving several state owned enterprises (SOEs) as part of the undertaking with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) four year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) worth $ 2.9 billion. 

Speaking at the ceremony State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe said out of the 52 strategically important SOEs, 39 are making profits and 13 are making losses. 

“Thirteen SOEs have made Rs. 1 trillion loss. Only 39 SOEs made a profit of Rs. 218 billion. The annual loss of Government institutions is over Rs. 811 billion. Only Rs. 28 billion have been paid to the treasury by these profit-making institutions,” the State Minister said. 

It was pointed out that due to the economic crisis, Sri Lanka has to follow the globally accepted economic methods. “Sri Lanka would never have adopted such economic measures if there was no such experience of a worst economic crisis. Methods to be adopted by a country to stabilise the economy of a country, should be identified by itself,” Semasinghe added.

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He also said that while the Government has the advantage of the market monopoly in many related businesses, some SOEs are having losses. He emphasised that the Treasury can no longer protect institutions that incur losses or that have not reached the desired goals, at a time when the country is in a severe economic crisis. 

He also pointed out that all parties should understand that the allocation of money from the Treasury means the allocation of money collected from the general public. Therefore, the State Minister further said that the Government will not continue to run the institutions by adding the burden on the people but will continue to be the regulatory body.