Govt. yet to decide on restructuring domestic debts: Semasinghe

The government has not taken any decision on restructuring domestic debts as yet and that it was waiting for discussions with bilateral creditors to be completed on debt restructuring, state minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe said today.

He told Parliament that no country has informed the government that they would not support on debt restructuring process and expressed hope that Sri Lanka would recieve a positive response by December.

He said the Central Bank, Finance Ministry, legal and financial advisers appointed on debt restructuring and IMF were having discussions with international creditors at present, and expected to complete the discussions by December this year.

Responding to a question raised by SJB MP Harsha de Silva, the Minister said the government was engaged in discussions with bilateral creditors and keep them informed of action plan of Sri Lanka and added that government was expecting financing assurance from them by December.

The Minister said the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry have paid their attention to negative consequences of restructuring domestic debts and said Sri Lanka was confident that need for a domestic debts restructuring would not arise.

"We are concerned about domestic debt restructuring in a situation when the country was experiencing higher interest rates, inflation and impact on the EPF. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)