Cabinet Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella 

• State to issue Treasury guarantees, facilitation letters to contractors’ banks
• New measures will allow projects that can be expedited with approval from Treasury Sec. and relevant authorities via a report submission to Cabinet every 3 months

By Asiri Fernando

The Government yesterday authorised introducing new procedure to ensure cash flow for key development projects, aimed at accelerating development activities. 

The new measures introduced by the Government will see the State issuing Treasury guarantees and facilitation letters issued to the contractors’ banks, which will enable developers to pay contractors on time. 

“This will see the contractors paid on time and State payments efficiently managed to complete development projects on time,” Cabinet Co-Spokesman Dr. Ramesh Pathirana said at the Cabinet press briefing yesterday.  

The new measures will also allow projects that can be expedited with the approval from the Treasury Secretary and relevant authorities, subject to a report submitted to the Cabinet every three months.

The Cabinet earlier this week gave the green light to a proposal by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity as the Finance Minister to accelerate development activities after a number of barriers to expedite development projects were identified.

The Government had identified that delays in issuing payments to private contractors caused delays in development projects which added to the overall cost. 

Govt. slashes import tax on several essential items