Former deputy Finance Minister, MP Eran Wickramaratne (pictured) endorsed the delisting of even profit making State Owned Enterprises (SOE) and said what is important is the value proposition that the country gets out of it. He said this at the NEXTGEN event.
Answering a question by ‘Daily News Business’ if it was right to delist profit making SOEs as there is a lot of opposition for it, like Sri Lanka Telecom and Sri Lanka Insurance he answered yes.
“As long as there is a value proposition coming to the government via their delisting, this is fine. Whether the SOE is making a profit or not is irrelevant.”
He however said that SOEs involved in sensitive areas and providing food security and other key sectors should remain with the government.
He also endorsed President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the government stance that states should not do business and they should be given out to the private sector who would do a far better job.
He said that the government must seriously re-look at allocating over 10% from the budget for defense when the country ended a conflict 14 years ago.
“This is the highest budget allocation for defense in Asia.” Sri Lanka’s public sector is the highest in Asia by having one public servant to serve 17 citizens.
“In contrast in India, and Bangladesh this number is one to 180 while in Japan it is one to 300 citizens.” He also suggested forming a ‘single revenue collection authority’ to streamline the tax collection and added that a government achieving a primary surplus is highly commendable.
State Minister for Finance Shehan Semasinghe said that the country is progressing well towards reaching economic prosperity and all should support current initiatives that are being taken in this regard. I can assure you that Sri Lanka would be in a better position by the end of 2023 but without support from all, Sri Lanka will fall back to a position far worse than what we were before.”
National People’s Power (NPP/JVP) representative Prof. Anil Jayantha said that going to the IMF was a step taken in the right direction but fulfilling all their agenda is something that should be debated.
CCC to stand against false promises made by politicians
Politicians should stop giving promises that they cannot keep in future elections and if they do, the Ceylon Chamber of
He said that politicians have on many occasions in the past misled the public by giving various products that are not productive to the country. “By trying to fulfill them the country faces huge issues.”
Filling up the public sector, reducing taxes, giving unwanted handouts, building unsustainable infrastructure are few of the negative results to the economy resulting from fulfilling these promises. He also said that the current tax structure is not too high but for people it is high since they were used to paying lower taxes once again due to politicians trying to keep election pledges and lowering taxes.
He however said that tax revenue collection is not fair and also not satisfactory as the three main areas of tax income collection Inland Revenue Department (IRD), Customs and Excise are not fully digitalized.
“They still are adopting colloquial methods which have to be changed soon to digital.” Sighting an example, he said whenever a vehicle ownership is changed or a new land is purchased by any individual the records come to the Inland Revenue.
“But IRD wot open tax files to everybody but will randomly call 50% of them and out of this 50% some will somehow speak to IRD officials and finally only few would come into the tax net.” The only way to stop this unethical practice is to digitalize the IRD.
Hulangamuwa also justified taking loans by the government as even the USA does that but at a fair interest rate and the borrowing are put to good use. “Sri Lankan governments had earlier borrowed and invested in several unproductive infrastructures which have been huge white elephants today.”
In Sri Lanka, government expenses are very high and they spent nearly Rs. 1.3 trillion to pay public sector salaries and 2.6 trillion to maintain a warfare budget and systematic steps should be taken to reduce them. State Minister for Finance Shehan Semasinghe said that the country is progressing well towards a reaching economic prosperity and all should support current initiatives that are being taken in this regard.
I can assure you that Sri Lanka would be in a better position by the end of 2023 but without support from all Sri Lanka will fall back to a position far worse than what we were before.”
National People’s Power (NPP/JVP) representative Prof. Anil Jayantha said that going to the IMF was a step taken in the right direction but fulfilling all their agenda is something that should be debated.
