If only the Central Bank acted ahead of time - Ranil

UNP MP Ranil Wickremesinghe recalled how he said that the country will have to seek a loan of USD 4 billion during the 2020 election.

"The situation intensified by 2021 and many countries sought IMF assistance. But we didn’t go," he said. 

Wickremesinghe said there were several programmes that had to be improved. Investment for the East Container Terminal was USD 500 million, USD 2 billion for the Light Railway project, USD 1.5 billion for the LNG plants undertaken by Japan and India.

But all investments for 2020 stopped. We could have taken from USA, China and EU, he said.

Speaking about rupee devaluation he said that the government should firstly come to an agreement with the IMF. Here it was mentioned that those affected by currency devaluations should be given some sort of relief. 

We always met with IMF and came to an agreement with the amount. But this time the Central Bank acted ahead of time, Wickremesinghe said.