JO to go to Supreme Court over debt office formation

By Chamodi Gunawardana 

Slamming the budget proposal to establish an Independent Debt Office under the Treasury Board to manage the country’s domestic and foreign debt, the Joint Opposition Economic Research Unit yesterday said that it would file a case in the Supreme Court against the move.

Speaking to the media, Joint Opposition MP Bandula Gunawardane claimed that according to the country’s economic policies, the Government had no right to transfer debt management authority to an independent office by removing it from the Central Bank’s purview. 

“Normally domestic and foreign debt stock is controlled by the Central Bank and it is the institution’s main responsibility. The Government cannot hand over that responsibility to a separate institution which does not have previous experience in handling debt,” he alleged.

Pointing out a budget proposal to shift the Central Bank’s authority to monitor bank transactions to a National Payment Platform (NPP), Gunawardane charged that the Government’s attempt to relieve the Central Bank of all its major responsibilities was a precursor to privatising it.

Budget proposal no. 390 says that the NPP, implemented by the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), will allow people, businesses and the Government to make peer-to-peer payments including fund transfers and online payments for goods and services, using computing devices, including mobile devices.

“We will file another case regarding this matter and will write to President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to inform them of our objections,” he said.

Gunawardane added that Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy had already written to Finance Minster Ravi Karunanayake conveying his objection regarding the above matters, but Karunanayake has ignored them. 

Meanwhile, Prof. G.L. Peiris said that the proposal to provide free tabs to students would not be practical since the Government had increased taxes on mobile data usage up to 25%.

“The Government should have to consider providing the real requirements of pupils and should improve infrastructure development instead of giving tabs to them,” he said. 

He also condemned the budget proposal on charging a fee when court cases are lodged. He said it would create trouble for innocent people seeking justice.