True

Last year, service exports recorded 3.1 billion dollars in revenue compared to 2022, reflecting a 69% growth, mainly driven by ICT, logistics, transport and construction.

Accordingly, for interest payments alone, … LKR 2,651 billion in the 2024 budget. Accordingly, it is clear that relative to other things [expenses], a huge amount of money is spent on paying the interest on debt.

[…] the Central Bank has issued treasury bills of LKR 465.1 billion during the period between September 27 and October 15, […] LKR 400 billion out of the total of LKR 465.1 billion has been utilised for debt servicing.

Especially, tax revenue increased by LKR 1,700 Bn in the first six months of 2024. That is a growth of 42.6%. We have been able to achieve a growth of 44.7% of the annual estimate. Also, non-tax revenue has increased by 30.4%. A target of 52.7% of the annual estimate has been reached.

If the VAT concession had not been granted, the salaries of government employees could be raised by Rs. 30,000 per month. That is the truth.

Even today, our country is running on the foreign currency sent by you [Sri Lankans living overseas]. […] our country has gas, fuel, and medicines, firstly because of the foreign exchange you all send, and secondly, because we are not repaying debt [at present]. 

According to international statistics 25 percent of children in Sri Lanka are suffering from child poverty. […] Statistics have shown that 42 percent of our country's children are suffering from multidimensional poverty.

The latest census indicates that 34 percent of school-age children with disabilities in this country do not receive even a basic education [...]. However, these statistics are from 2012, from the last census.

By the end of the 2023 financial year, the losses of SriLankan Airlines amounted to LKR 609 billion […] Every family in this country, […] has been placed in a position where they have to pay LKR 107,000.

Even though the @CBSL reported that a $ 2 billion loan repayment was made, $ 3 billion was borrowed from multilateral sources during the same period.

By the end of 2022, the current account deficit of the balance of payments was 1.9% of the GDP. We were able to achieve a surplus in the current account of the balance of payments by the end of 2023. This was the first time since 1977 that a surplus was achieved in the current account of the balance of payments.

According to the constitution of our country, [the] presidential election must be held for certain between 18th September and 18th October 2024.

[A group of] 4 million are watching the government expectantly. 2 million out of that are government employees and pensioners who are expecting an increase in salaries and the other 2 million are those who have been admitted to the social welfare process through Aswesuma.

When considering the Ministry of Defence, we spent 7% of the total budget for 2022 on it [Ministry of Defence] ... 60% of that goes to pay wages…Sri Lanka is one out of ten countries that has the greatest number of soldiers per 100 citizens. If we take 200 countries, we are in the first 10. Sri Lanka is a country that has around 1.5 soldiers for every 100 citizens.

We put the Central Bank there [in charge] without meddling in it. Henceforth, according to the law, we won’t be able to print money. We have lost our ability to borrow (obtain loans) from the Bank of Ceylon and the Peoples' Bank. Although it is tough, we have taken these steps to control inflation.

[…] In the [EPF] Act itself it specifies 2.5% return. […] at the time inflation was at around 1 percent, if you look at 5 years prior to 1958, the average would have been 1 percent. […] Over the years, some years have been positive, and some returns have been negative in terms of real returns. Last year the EPF return on a real basis was -47%. […]

As of today, the total number of inmates in prisons are 28,468. […] the number of drug-related offenders has increased rapidly. As per today 50.3% of the total inmates are people who were imprisoned for drug related offences. In some prisons about 65% are detained due to drug related offences [….] During this period, that is the last half of 2021 and the year 2022, just for the twenty-eight thousand inmates the Government incurred a cost of Rs. 3.9 billion on just their food. [….] the overall maintenance of the prison system is nearly 10 billion.

…there are a few factors that are not considered when measuring the contribution to the labour force…[a] large chunk of unremunerated work done by women is the main type of work that is not included in these statistics. According to statistics presented through research, 60% of care-giving work…which is unremunerated, is done by women. It is while doing these tasks and in addition to it that they also engage in economic activities…research has shown that…women work at least 14 hours a day. Men work only 9 hours. It is within this reality that we are proposing that women should work more; that they are not working enough and should work more.

In addition to the provident fund of the general public, CBSL also maintains a separate provident fund for its officers […] CBSL invested its funds in places where it could get the highest returns and credited an interest of 29% from the [its] provident fund to the accounts of its officers. Yet, the general public was only given a paltry interest of 9% after [the CBSL]…

The IMF has not imposed a condition saying to restructure domestic debt. ….. That being the case, who has intimidated us to the point of doing this? What has happened is that foreign bondholders – sovereign bondholders – have imposed a condition saying that if their debt is restructured…then, something similar must also be done to domestic debt.

...within that period [2015-2020], we have brought 2,498,714 vehicles...worth Rs. 1,331.51 billion...We have taxed [them to the value of] 991.12 billion.

“…by 2019…the poverty line[sic] of this country was 11%…it has grown to 25% by 2023. I believe it is more than that. But the World Bank has calculated that it is only 25%, which means that out of 22 million in this country, 5.5 million are poor.”

…. the Fiscal Management Responsibility Act No. 3 of 2003…had three main goals…to maintain the budget gap below 5%..... reducing public debt as a percentage of GDP to 65% by 2013, that is, in 10 years…. reducing the amount that the government guarantees when borrowing to 4.5% of GDP…..today the budget gap is at levels such as 10%, 12%, and the amount of public debt has gone up to more than 125% of the GDP. The guarantee for public debt has gone up to 15%...

The majority of Sri Lanka’s domestic debt is in treasury bonds. We have [almost 9,000 billion] worth of treasury bonds….44.5% of that is in banks….43% was borrowed from EPF & ETF

Programme financing gaps: debt service reduction during 2023-27 should be sufficient to close external financing gaps. Under staff baseline scenario, US$17 billion in debt service reduction is required, including the arrears accumulated in 2022 So, we are trying to get a 17 billion debt reduction on that side. Do you want it or not.

Sri Lankan migrant workers’ foreign remittances increased to US$ 568.3 million in March 2023 from US$ 318.4 million in March 2022. This is a 78.5% (US$ 249.9 million) increase compared to the inflows recorded in March 2022.

The total base money printed in 2021 was Rs. 344 billion, whilst the net basis reserve money issued in 2022 was below Rs. 40 billion.

…The officials of the PUCSL were brought to the Presidential Secretariat and approval was obtained for the price hike while both the chairperson and the director general of this commission were away from the country…what the PUCSL has said is to increase a unit [of electricity] from Rs. 8 to Rs. 10 [for the lowest tariff band]. But today, it has been increased from Rs. 8 to Rs. 30.

In 2019, there were 1.5 million income tax files in total…when we abolished the PAYE tax, in December 2021, we [only] had 400,000 income tax files. It reduced from 1.5 million to 400,000.

In other countries, most of the taxes are collected from a higher income bracket. In 2021, in India – 50% direct tax…Bangladesh – direct tax 32%...Nepal – direct 31%....69%. Indonesia – direct tax 40%...Vietnam – direct tax 31%...Thailand – direct taxes 37%...Malaysia – direct tax 66%...However the situation in our country is different. In 2021, our direct tax was 21% while indirect was 79%. We should take action to rectify this tax divergence. Then, the tax burden on the general public will be reduced.

Food insecurity in Sri Lanka is highest in the estate sector at 51%, while it is 43% in the urban sector and 34% in the rural sector. The World Bank has reported that the country’s poverty rate has climbed to 26% and is at 53% in the estates.

In 2018 we ranked 7th in Asia in terms of the countries that pollute the air the most. At present we have improved this to rank 12th [in Asia]. Globally, we ranked 17th [in 2018], and now we have improved this to rank 58th in the world.

The government being the owner of around 80 percent of land will take measures to facilitate access to land with suitable utilities for domestic and foreign investment.

In 2021, 19% of the total tax revenue was received from tobacco and alcohol.

By 2001, export earnings as a percentage of the gross national product stood at around 33%. It is now less than 15%.

The government had reportedly agreed with the IMF to reach a primary account surplus of 2.3% of GDP by 2025. However, the primary account had dropped to around (6%) of GDP during the tenure of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa...It would be a monumental feat to bring the primary account to a surplus of 2.3% of GDP.

By December 2021, government institutions have borrowed more than Rs. 1 trillion.

While Sri Lanka Railways earned a revenue of Rs. 2.6 billion in 2021, it had to pay Rs.7.8 billion just for salaries and wages.

The loss of SriLankan Airlines in the year 2020-2021 alone is Rs. 45 billion. By 31st March 2021, the total loss was at 372 billion.

The price of petrol was reduced by 20 rupees last night. I had pointed out two weeks ago that the price of a litre of petrol... can be reduced by 150 rupees.

Some people in the present government say that the country has come to this situation because we [yahapalana government] took loans. 80% of the loans we took were used for settling the loans obtained by Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government.

An Extended Fund Facility (EFF) - which allows longer repayment periods - may be best suited to the country, it typically requires deeper structural reforms. 

Fuel Price will be revised from 3am today. Fuel pricing formula that was approved by the cabinet was applied to revise the prices. Price revision includes all costs incurred in importing, unloading, distribution to the stations and taxes. Profits not calculated and included.

Foreign remittances increased during the first 5 months of 2021. It increased by USD 450Mn. However, it started to drop from the sixth month onwards… This January, it [remittances] reduced by 62%.

The CPC incurs a loss of Rs. 19 from each 92-Octane Petrol litre…and a loss from a litre of diesel is Rs. 52…. The government levies Rs. 42 on a 92-Octane petrol litre…and Rs. 17 on a diesel litre. [The CPC’s loss per day is a whopping Rs 551 million and the finance ministry collects Rs 364 million daily from the CPC as government taxes] If these levies are removed, the CPC’s loss can be minimized.

We [Sri Lanka] have the highest inflation in Asia as of now.

Compared to 2019 and 2021, the decrease in foreign reserves is 80% in Sri Lanka. But other countries in the [South Asian] region have seen an escalation of their reserves.

It was in 1950 that we entered into an agreement with the IMF to obtain its membership. As a member country, from 1960 until now, we have carried out certain transactions with the IMF on 16 occasions. I recall that 2.5 billion dollars was obtained in 2008 during President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure. That was the largest loan obtained from the IMF thus far.

Sri Lanka…[is] already [close to being] self-sufficient in eggs and poultry.

There are only 16 countries in the world that have at least moved towards 10% organic agriculture. No Asian countries are among those 16.

Out of the total import expenditure, fuel is the foremost import item upon which more than 20% is spent.

…Basil Rajapaksa in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, presented a cabinet paper and handed over these constructions [to convert the Yugadhanawi Power Plant into an LNG plant] to a US company [New Fortress Energy] that was not involved in the tender process in anyway.

…noteworthy is the fact that [the Finance Act No. 18 of 2021] will not invalidate the Prevention of Money Laundering Act or any other finance law in the country.

70% of government revenue is spent on interest on loan repayment. Lebanon is the only country in the world that pays higher interest than Sri Lanka as a percentage of national revenue.

[Local] milk production is still only around 40 per cent of the total requirement.

Sri Lanka has lost Rs. 20 billion as a result of the sugar scam.

Although the contribution by the agriculture sector to the country’s economy is less than 10%, the segment of the population that is dependent on the sector for income is one-third of this country’s population, [that is,] more than 30%.

The CBSL has reported that the public sector debt is 109.7% of the GDP. This is the highest it has ever been in history. If we disregard the government’s undervaluation of sovereign bonds, this figure will exceed 113% of the GDP.

The tourism industry has collapsed completely following the Easter Sunday attacks and following this COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the collapse of the tourism industry, we have lost USD 5 billion per year that the country should have received.

The fisheries industry contributes to 1.1% of Sri Lanka's GDP, according to the 2019 CBSL report.

14% of Sri Lanka’s debt is owed to China…

Industries occupy a special place in the national manufacturing process in Sri Lanka which is about 26.4% of the national GDP, and only a very low percentage of about 10% contributes to exports.

The number of vehicles imported to Sri Lanka from 2015 to 2019 was 2,515,546. And the amount spent on these vehicles imported amounts to Rs. 1,239 billion.

CBSL Annual Report states Sri Lanka's budget deficit for 2020 [was a] huge 11%. But it should be even higher at 14%.

35% of our country's national income is enjoyed by 10% of the population.

Compared to 2019, sugar imports have increased by 38% and oil and fat imports have increased by 237%.

The revenue from export agricultural crops stood at Rs. 63,000 million in 2019. Within one year we have been able to increase it to Rs. 73,000 million.

Tea export volumes in 2020 declined by 9.2% or 27 million kilos to 265.5 million kilos from the previous year, whilst in value terms, the performance was down by Rs. 10.4 billion or 4.3% to Rs. 230.1 billion from 2019... The latter is despite Free-on-Board (FOB) unit value of tea rising to its highe

There has been a big outflow of foreign investment from the stock exchange. In terms of rupee value Rs. 51 billion outflows was registered in the year 2020…

Sri Lanka's forest cover is only 29.2 percent.

We had USD 8.2 billion in reserves… When the good governance government handed us the government, there was only USD 7.6 billion in reserves.

Rs. 130 billion has been printed from November 1 to December 1 

WHO, CDC and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control had issued clear and extensive guidelines on handling dead bodies confirmed or suspected as having COVID-19… all these global pandemic control programmes clearly stipulate that the victims can be “buried or cremated”…

We have to pay close to USD 400 million a month in [foreign] debt.

"The Postal Department is currently running at a loss of about Rs 6 billion. It generates an income of Rs 8 billion annually. The department’s expenditure runs to about Rs 14 billion on account of having overtime payments, the salaries and other costs."

The provision under which companies registered under the Registrar of Companies and of which the government is the majority shareholder, have been removed from the audit process of the Auditor General

…according to the 2009 [sic, 2019] Annual Report from the Central Bank, the female labour force participation rate of Sri Lanka was 34.5%. It was 73% for men... We have one of the lowest female labour force participation rates in the world.

…the government made a hue and cry [those days] saying that the debt rose by Rs. 5,700 billion in five years, didn’t they? However, during their time, it has risen by [approximately] Rs. 1,000 billion in just four months… What this means is that the monthly increase in debt has risen by a factor of 2.5 as compared to the time of the previous government.

Before the 19th Amendment, when a new president was elected, he had the power to dissolve parliament and to call for an election to elect a parliament that would be in alignment with his policies… [After the 19th Amendment] parliament cannot be dissolved for four and a half years. It is only with...

The banking sector remains strong with total capital adequacy ratio above 16 per cent, net stable funding ratio above 130 per cent, liquidity coverage ratio above 175 per cent and statutory liquid asset ratio above 32 per cent. With these performance indicators, I do not think anyone needs an additional assurance on the current strength of the banking system.

In 2005, when we took over the country, Sri Lanka's debt burden was 103%... [we] reduced the debt burden to 72%. During the five years the UNP ruled the country, [they] once again increased it to 87%.

As a country, Japan has given the most in loans at low interest rates.

When money is deposited in a financial institution, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka is only responsible for up to LKR 600,000.

In 2018 the income the country received from overseas workers was about USD 7 billion. That was 7.9% of that year’s GDP.

…No [COVID-19] patients were reported from the community in the period of close to three weeks that elapsed, because the disease did not spread amongst the community.

…[we] have not been able to increase representation [of women] in parliament. Even today, representation of women in our parliament is at a level of 5.8%.

When President Mahinda Rajapaksa took over the country in 2005, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was USD 20 billion. In ten years, we increased the GDP to USD 80 billion.

Today, the percentage of women studying in universities exceeds 50 percent.

1,600 [young] girls are raped every year.

"Sri Lanka’s Labour Force Participation (LFP) was 36% for women versus 75% for men in 2016, which is the 14th largest gender gap in LFP globally.

In 2010, LKR 53.1 billion was allocated for free healthcare; in 2015, we allocated LKR 139.5 billion. In 2016, [it was] LKR 174 billion. In 2019, an amount of LKR 194.5 billion were allocated.

"…ICT/BPM, electronics, printing and packaging services – alone contributes to around $1.3 billion in export revenues every year."

75% of the lands occupied by the security forces in the Northern Province have been released to the public.

As of now, the number of passengers travelling by train is about 400,000… In [bus] passenger transport, the private sector does about 75%, and SLTB buses do 25%.

Deaths reported as being due to drowning are about 800 annually.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) incur losses in the tens of millions [of rupees] per day.

Sri Lanka’s tourism sector accounts for 5% of gross domestic product.

When he took office in 2015, there were 1.5 million tourist arrivals and in 2018, it increased to 2.3 million.

"During the past 2 months, the rupee has appreciated by 2.5%."

As a whole, 95% of MPs have spoken [in parliament in 2018]. It is only 5% who haven't spoken.

The tea industry adds $1.5 billion to the economy of this country and the rubber industry adds $0.8 billion.

“They [estate workers] spend 50 percent of their earnings on food."

Sri Lanka’s rank in the World Press Freedom Index has moved from 165 to 131

Employment has increased from 7.7 million in 2014 to 8.2 million in 2017.

Colombo was the highest ranked South Asian city, but still only stood at 137 out of 231 cities. At least 15 Asian cities are in the bottom 50 of this ranking.