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Ravi K grills Govt over reserve credibility
Colombo, Feb. 20 (Daily Mirror) - UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake demanded an urgent statement in Parliament over the credibility of Sri Lanka’s Gross Official Reserves (GOR), possible foreign exchange leakages and the consistency of the Central Bank’s regulatory actions.
Addressing the House, Karunanayake said reserve strength cannot be judged by “headline numbers alone,” insisting that transparency, enforceability and regulatory consistency are critical to maintaining public and investor confidence.
He called on the Government to disclose the latest reported GOR figure and clarify how much of it is actually usable after excluding encumbered assets, swaps and pledged balances. He also sought details on the annual revenue generated from reserves between 2023 and 2025.
The MP requested a comprehensive breakdown of the reserves, including the quantity and valuation basis of monetary gold — questioning whether the holdings are physical gold or paper-based instruments — as well as foreign currency assets by major currency and instrument, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), and the IMF reserve position.
Karunanayake further pressed for detailed information on foreign currency swaps, including counterparties, principal amounts, maturity profiles and costs, along with domestic swaps, their rollover terms, collateralisation and effective costs.
He questioned how much of the total reported reserves are tied up in swaps or otherwise not immediately deployable for debt servicing or currency stabilisation.
Turning his focus to the Central Bank’s operations, the MP asked what spread or margin is applied when buying or selling US dollars to the Government for reserve accumulation and debt servicing, and how much profit the Central Bank has realised from such transactions over the past three financial years.
He also queried whether the Central Bank is subject to continuous statutory audits by the Auditor General and urged the Government to table the latest audit report in Parliament, including details on reserve confirmations, swap verifications and gold custody validation.
Karunanayake further questioned the rationale behind a recent circular warning domestic institutions on foreign currency transactions and asked whether authorities have quantified foreign exchange and tax revenue losses resulting from Sri Lanka-based businesses routing credit card and commercial payments through overseas payment gateways.
In a pointed remark, he asked why, if domestic entities are strictly regulated, a binding circular has not been issued against non-compliant businesses using foreign payment gateways that divert foreign exchange outside Sri Lanka’s regulated banking system.
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