SLEA President urges greater economic progress, fiscal reform

Monday, 24 October 2016 00:01 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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Sri Lanka Economic Association (SLEA) President Prof. A.D.V. de S. Indraratna, in his address at the SLEA’s 2016 Annual Sessions, lamented over the country’s inability to overturn the slow progress shown by its key economic indicators.

The following is his full speech. 

This is the 13th consecutive Annual Sessions of SLEA which I am addressing as its President. The theme of these sessions is ‘Fiscal Reforms: An imperative for sustained growth’. It is a spin-off from, or an offspring of, the theme of last year’s Annual Sessions, namely ‘Policy Reforms for Sustained High Growth’. Therefore, without making a long address on the overall theme itself, I will deviate from the tradition, by making some introductory remarks starting from where I concluded last year. There is also another reason for this: there are two eminent economists who will follow me as the Keynote Speaker and the Chief Guest to speak on it.

Last year, you may recall that I discussed the major problem facing Sri Lanka in the last one and half decades, as “falling current revenue relatively to excessive current expenditure and the resulting unsustainable budget deficits, on the one hand, and the rising public debt with limited FDI flow, on the other.” This has been the major impediment to the achievement of sustained high growth and in my own words the problem was summed up as “living beyond means”. 

By way of a solution to it, I also suggested that the enhancement of current revenue was crucial, mainly by increasing direct tax revenue while excessive current expenditure should be reduced by eliminating waste, corruption and extravagance. I also added that at the same time, an enabling environment with good governance backed by sound national policies must be created to attract FDI.

Discouraging remedial action

The Finance Minister seems to have accepted that Sri Lanka’s “major problem has been living beyond its means”. However, the remedial action taken so far for its solution has not been encouraging. Even though the trend of current revenue which has fallen consistently as a percentage of GDP from 16.8 in 2000 to 11.4 in 2014 has been reversed in 2015, with around an 20% absolute increase in the total revenue over the previous year, this has happened due to the very large increase of indirect taxes, that is taxes untitled-1on domestic goods including excise taxes on tobacco, liquor, petrol, etc. 

Of the total increase of around Rs. 305 billion of total tax revenue, only around Rs. 65 billion, that is only about 20%, was from direct taxes. This was rather in direct antithesis to the policy announced by the Prime Minister, just before the Budget in November 2015. Worse still, current revenue has increased at a much slower rate than current expenditure, almost doubling the primary deficit as a percentage of the GDP, and the overall budget deficit to an unsustainable level of 7.4% of the GDP, in 2015.

On the other hand, the national debt, both domestic and foreign, has increased, with the debt service ratio on foreign debt rising from 20.8% of the GDP in the previous year to 27.7%, in 2015, that is by more than 7.5% of the value of the exports of goods and services, which themselves have been falling. Even though a part of this increase might be due to the inclusion of some earlier unregistered debt discovered latterly, the net increase is still significant. 

FDI

Foreign direct investment (FDI), which is also necessary for sustained growth, has not improved either. With the end of the terrorist war and the establishment of peace, FDI was expected to increase significantly. This did not happen. FDI has, in fact, reduced to 0.83% of the GDP in 2015 from more than 1.0% of GDP in each of the preceding four years. 

Foreign private investors desire good governance and an efficient and corruption-free public sector when deciding to invest in a country as a sole investor or more so, in partnership with the Government in the form of a Private-Public Sector Partnership (PPP). The inevitable conclusion is that without an enabling environment with good governance and its characteristic attributes, foreign investors are reluctant to come in a big way. And, unfortunately, there is no substitute for good governance.

With the new Unity Government, the journey to good governance has only begun. Independence of the judiciary has been restored, the rule of law has been made operative, the right to information has been enforced even though subject to some limitation, media freedom has improved and Independent Commissions have been appointed though the integrity and independence of a few of them have been questioned. 

Nevertheless, there is a long way to go in the elimination of waste, extravagance, corruption including favouritism and nepotism, and the enforcement of transparency and accountability in public and corporate transactions, which are all attributes of good governance. There are allegations in respect of each one of these. One does not have to enumerate them, they are in the know of the public domain and in the media and in the recent reports of COPE and COPA. 

It is common knowledge that fiscal operations over the years have resulted in a high budget deficit and an excessive debt burden which has to be serviced without allowing it to pile up further. The Government must take steps to curtail expenses especially those of a current nature. Populist proposals such as salary increases and the provision of various perks and consumer subsidies should not be undertaken without commensurate proposals for enhancement of revenue, especially direct tax revenue.

As I mentioned at the outset, a year ago, that was at the end of last October, SLEA discussed that a series of policy and structural reforms, on trade and other real sectors, would be necessary, in order to reduce the budget deficit, fill the serious resource gap and reverse the economy to a growth trajectory to have sustained inclusive development, which should be the ultimate aim. 

Fiscal reforms

Of these, fiscal reforms are an imminent imperative. That is why SLEA thought it fit to take it up as the theme of this year’s Annual Sessions this evening and the whole of tomorrow, only a couple of weeks before the 2017 budget. Notwithstanding, one should not think that fiscal reforms are sufficient or overlook the fact that they must be accompanied by incentive and structural reforms especially with respect to trade and other real sectors, the regulatory environment and access to credit by small and medium entrepreneurs.

As regards the monetary sector, the Central Bank has been proactive and taken several measures to tighten monetary policy and cautioned against fiscal profligacy with a view to facilitating the conduct of monetary policy. As regards trade policy, Sri Lanka must not rush to embrace bilateral trade agreements Like the ECTA, but focus more on regional and multilateral trade. 

At the same time, Sri Lanka should enhance its competitiveness by improving product quality and cost via improvement in productivity, and adhering to standards needed to access international markets. I hope the development framework or plan which the Prime Minister is scheduled to announce soon will come out of a homegrown model determined by the endowment of the country’s natural and human resources, its strategic location and its insularity and small size. 

In this context, SLEA is glad that the Prime Minister, according to the media, has thought it fit to appoint a committee comprising our own local economists and other professionals rather than getting down foreign experts. 

Let me conclude with the hope that SLEA discussions this evening and tomorrow will be fruitful and make the necessary impact on the relevant authorities and parties.

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