Task of rebuilding economy will be thrust on UNP: Ravi K

By Dharisha Bastians

United National Party Parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake yesterday pointed to the sharp fall in the Rupee and stock market as being telling signs of the country’s economic crisis.

Karunanayake warned that the sharp depreciation of the rupee over the last 72 hours impacted the country’s imports and increased the country’s debt burden by billions of rupees.  Yesterday the currency fell to a six month low of 129 against the US dollar.

“When the rupee fell against the dollar from Rs. 114 to Rs. 128 last year, the country’s debt burden increased by Rs. 280 billion.  It is poised to increase again now,” Karunanayake charged.

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The UNP MP said that the Government was engaged in a development drive that was creating white elephants all the while ensuring that the people of the country would have to bear the entire debt burden on those projects.

“Today they are building ports in which there are no ships, airports that no planes land at and where elephants are running on the runway.

 But the repayment of debt has to happen by the people,” he charged.Karunanayake said that like the UNF Government that came to power in 2001, after the Chandrika Kumaratunga had driven the country into recession and rebuilt the economy, the Opposition would be compelled to undertake a similar task after the fall of the Rajapaksa regime.

He charged that while Casino King James Packer was being granted 13-year import duty concessions and VAT waivers, the innocent people of Sri Lanka were compelled to pay massive taxes on their essential items such as tinned fish, dhal and fuel.

Karunanayake said that when UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe met with the Mahanayake Theros in Kandy on Thursday, the High Priests warned that they would vehemently oppose the incursion of casinos into the country.

The UNP MP said that it was a tragedy that the Government was focused on frivolous projects at a time when policy should be directed at creating employment and bringing meaningful economic growth.