Senior Advisor to the President on Economic and Financial Affairs Prof. Anil Jayantha said that the government has not taken any special or unusual borrowing as published by the media.
Prof. Jayantha stated that unless funds are collected from the local financial market to meet the expenses of the respective ministries and to repay the matured treasury bills and treasury bonds, extraordinary borrowings are not carried out these days.
The professor made these remarks while replying to our inquiry regarding the allegations made by some people that local and foreign borrowings have increased after the appointment of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
“Any government needs funds to cover its day-to-day essential expenses and to run those services. Every week, the Central bank collects funds by selling treasury bills and treasury bonds, and repays those that mature on due dates,” he said.
“This is a normal process. The process is going on as usual these days also. There is nothing special even though a new president has been elected,” he said.
He further stated that no new borrowing has been made. He emphasized that this is a normal situation as only fundraising is done as usual.”Other than that, there has been no special or unusual fundraising from the local financial market,”he added.
The professor also emphasized that it should be investigated whether the government has taken loans from the local or foreign financial markets as indicated by the media. Besides, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka is responsible for stabilizing the financial market. The government has recently purchased US dollars to deal with stabilization.
“It was done before the appointment of the new president. We should also investigate that,” the professor said. Besides, he noted that it is needed to look into the amount of funds collected from the local and foreign markets in terms of raising funds and how much has been raised.
