{"id":80126,"date":"2022-10-31T00:54:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T04:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=80126"},"modified":"2022-10-31T19:55:47","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T23:55:47","slug":"president-ranil-wickremesinghe-says-his-taking-over-a-country-that-had-declared-bankruptcy-was-like-taking-over-the-titanic-after-the-ship-hit-the-iceberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=80126","title":{"rendered":"President Ranil Wickremesinghe Says his Taking Over a Country that had Declared Bankruptcy was like taking over the Titanic after the ship hit the iceberg."},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday described his accession to power in crisis-hit Sri Lanka as \u201ctaking over the titanic after it hit the iceberg\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

His witty remark was made at the 32nd Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lanka Tea Factory Owners Association at the Water\u2019s Edge Hotel as a response to what Wickremesinghe described as its Chairman Lionel Herath\u2019s \u2018tale of woes\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Lionel Herath) came out with a tale of woes. That is understandable looking at what we have gone through this year. Now, it is my chance to come out with my tale of woes because I have taken over the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. So, you can just imagine where I have to start. Everything was down. We have declared ourselves bankrupt,\u201d President Wickremesinghe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the bankruptcy that we have declared, our economy has virtually come to a halt. The inflation, the bankruptcy, and everything else that is happening have brought our economy to a grinding halt. How do we restart it? That is what we are engaged in,\u201d the President said in his speech in which he detailed measures taken to restore stability and he also listed various challenges ahead and steps taken and planned to address those. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The President said the priority had been to conserve foreign exchange and limit imports so that the country could get fuel, fertiliser and medicine. \u201cIt has not worked fully initially, but now it\u203as working much better. Therefore, that is how we started.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThen as the revenue dried up, we faced the difficulty of paying our bills or meeting our commitments. We had to keep two things in mind, one is to pay the salaries of government servants, about 1.7 million people and service our debts. Therefore, we have had to work within this scope,\u201d Wickremesinghe explained. <\/p>\n

He said that following the self-declaration of bankruptcy, the first issue was to ensure sufficient steps to wipe out that label of bankruptcy, which meant Sri Lanka going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no other option. Our growth rate this year is going to be -8%. Last year too we recorded minus growth. This year it is also -8%, and next year it is forecast that it would be -3%,\u201d the President revealed at the forum of tea factory owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, there\u203as one other factor which worries me. When that forecast was made, everyone thought the global economy would do well. Now, all the indications are that the global economy will fare badly. How will it impact, because the rising inflation in European and other countries will mean that the cost of living will rise? This in turn can somehow affect exports such as less clothing, maybe less tea, and less coffee,\u201d he said, adding Sri Lanka has to somehow manage the next two years. <\/p>\n

Focusing on another challenge, the President spoke of the need to boost Government revenue. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur revenue was reduced from 15% to 8.5% and we are expected to get the revenue back to 15%, which I think we have to do. The timeframe is 2026. I went in for a four-year program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u203at think we could bear the burden if we tried to do it in two years and it may not have been possible. I\u203am happy that we went for four years because 2023 looks to be a bad year globally, not only for Sri Lanka,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

In that context the President justified the move to raise taxes. \u201cAs someone once said, if it moves, tax it. We had to come to that level and we had no way out. I wish we could have done it gradually but couldn\u203at because we needed the money,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the taxes, those who paid taxes up to 2019 got a reduction in 2019. Therefore, that\u203as a loss of revenue. Now what we are trying to do is bring it back first to the 2019 level and add a little bit more. So if you look at up to 2019, your taxation then and today is one figure. However, if you look at 2020 the gap seems much bigger. The fact is that we are suffering, it\u2019s not only tax, but our rupee has also depreciated and interest rates have gone up,\u201d emphasised the President.<\/p>\n

He expressed hope for an early conclusion of negotiations with Sri Lanka\u2019s official and private creditors. \u201cI have already started discussions with Japan and now with India and China. We get down to a common platform of how we can resolve it while we also have discussions on bilateral issues that affect each other\u2019s countries. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can move and come to an agreement by December, which means coming to an agreement by mid-November, and going up to the IMF Board in mid-December, we will gain a big advantage. However, I don\u203at know whether we can do it for the simple reason that in China, the focus has started now after the party conference. However, we must aim to have it by January,\u201d the President added.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Daily FT<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday described his accession to power in crisis-hit Sri Lanka as \u201ctaking over the titanic after it hit the iceberg\u201d. His witty remark was made at the 32nd Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lanka Tea Factory Owners Association at the Water\u2019s Edge Hotel as a response to what Wickremesinghe described …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘President Ranil Wickremesinghe Says his Taking Over a Country that had Declared Bankruptcy was like taking over the Titanic after the ship hit the iceberg.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80126"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80127,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80126\/revisions\/80127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}