JVP urges public to hold Govt. accountable for “gambling with public money”

By Chamitha Kuruppu

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) on Wednesday stated that the time has come for the public to “stand against the irresponsible decisions and unwise acts of the Finance Minister and the Central Bank Governor that leads this country into an economic downfall.”

President Mahinda Rajapakse as the Minister of Finance and Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal have “acted arbitrarily, caring less about the future of this country. Unfortunately they continue to gamble with public money making this country more and more debt ridden,” said JVP Secretary Tilvin Silva General.   

Addressing a news gathering Silva said, “This Government no more feels that they are answerable to the people in this country. This is why they keep on borrowing money from private banks. They are making this country more and more debt ridden and doing nothing but gambling with the money. They have appointed their henchman as heads of Government’s intuitions and those men keep dancing to the government’s tune.”   

According to Silva, the Government has given up on all the income generating sources. He noted that the production in this country has also collapsed. “The Government claimed that by devaluing the rupee they will be able to increase foreign exchange. But what has actually happened is that there is a significant decrease in foreign exchange earnings. Meanwhile spending on imports has notably increased.”

He pointed out that during the last five months the total foreign exchange earning has decreased by 5.4%. Earnings on agricultural exports have decreased by 10.8%. To cover losses made by foreign trade, Government continues to take loans from the International Monetary Fund and private banks. By the end of June country’s total debts were over Rs. 553 billion. During the last five months, the Government has taken loans amounting to Rs. 556 billion. By the end of this year Government has to take at least another Rs. 1,400 billion as loans.

“It is the responsibility of the Government to use the money taken from these loans to revive the country from the present financial crisis. But without doing that, the Rajapakse administration is gambling with the money. The Government’s henchmen like the Central Bank Governor is supporting the government to carry out this madness,” Silva said.  

“The Central Bank has lost all the money they invested on Greek bonds. Any sane person with a little economic knowledge will know investing money in Greece’s financial market was a foolish decision. We should not forget that the money lost was the money earned from taxing innocent people in this country,” asserted Silva.  

“The money wasted on hedging deal was enormous. Both the Government and the Central Bank Governor are answerable to the people in this country about the losses incurred due to this deal. But they continue with their wayward decisions. The time has come to for the masses to rally against this idiotic administration. JVP will provide leadership to the masses in the country,” he noted.