Proposed amendments to MLA detrimental to SL: Opposition

By Lahiru Pothmulla   

The Opposition yesterday said the proposed amendments to the Monetary Law Act (MLA) were detrimental to the economy and that it would go to the Supreme Court if and when the draft bill was presented to parliament.   

Addressing a news briefing, Opposition MP Dr. Bandula Gunawardana said the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) would go their separate ways if the MLA was amended.   

He said the Finance Minister had submitted a cabinet paper on March 8 to amend MLA No. 58 of 1949, with the objective of strengthening the independence of the CBSL and to facilitate the adoption of Flexible Inflation Targeting (FIT) as the monetary policy framework.   

“However, the President on June 3 suggested that the proposed MLA should be reviewed by a committee of economists before it is submitted to the Legal Draughtsman and that it must go through a broader stakeholder dialogue and consultation process. Therefore, the cabinet on June 18 decided not to go ahead with MLA amendments and to refer the proposed amendments to the Committee on Public Finance in parliament. However, the cabinet is now going forward with the MLA amendments,” Dr. Gunawardana said.   

He said it was only recently that the CBSL officials told the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on the Easter Sunday attacks, that the recent amendments to the Foreign Exchange Act (FEA) restricted action to scrutinise receiving of foreign funds.  The CB officials said it was not possible to carry out an investigation on money transfers of the Batticaloa campus under the amended FEA as it did not even define an offence.