Bond sale to facilitate Govt. financing: UNP

7 March 2013 11:00 pm

Commenting on the decision by the National Savings Bank to seek an international bond sale of upto one billion USD, the main opposition UNP alleged that the entire transaction was to further facilitate government borrowings.

“For what purpose does the NSB need one billion dollars? It is very clear that it is in order to channel funds back to the government because government borrowings are no longer legitimate,” Dr. Harsha de Silva said.

Speaking  further, UNP’s unofficial economic affairs spokesman termed the deal as “creative accounting”.

“This is what is known as creative accounting. The government on one hand says that it won’t borrow in the commercial market this year and instead it uses state banks to borrow, therefore in the debt to GDP ratio the Debt wouldn’t increase. This is what is actually happening” he said.

Dr. de Silva went on to state that the reason for using a state bank as a proxy by the government, could be to deviate from the recent Supreme Court determination.
“Instead of having to come before parliament and seek approval for the borrowings as per article 148, which was decided recently by the SC the government may be using this to get what it wants,” he said.(Hafeel Farisz)