Political parties opposed to IMF process must offer viable alternative: SJB

• SJB opposed to 36% income tax, but says has alternate at 30%
• Says JVP (NPP) are stakeholders of causing the current crisis

By Darshana Abayasingha

The main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) said yesterday that if any political party or coalition is not willing to go ahead with the proposed IMF bailout, they must then propose a viable alternate plan.

Addressing a media briefing, MP Dr. Harsha De Silva said Sri Lanka’s bilateral creditors had agreed to restructure debt based on the staff-level agreement with the IMF and the current Government, but the difficult part is yet to come when the country must negotiate with private creditors. Should any future Government state that it is not ready to go ahead with the IMF agreement, then it is likely Sri Lanka would end up like Argentina who declared bankruptcy nine times since 2005.

“Sri Lanka’s debt is not sustainable. In this scenario no one is going to lend to us irrespective of who is in power. We have to accept that stark reality no matter who we are. Some countries have come out of such crises in a short space of 18 months. So, we have to uphold the agreements that are in place. There can be questionable points such as the Personal Income Tax. The SJB does not agree that people should be taxed at 36%. But we have a workable alternate proposal at 30%, and people must be taxed in an equitable manner. Therefore, we ask those who want to form alternate Governments, what is your policy? Stability alone is not enough to develop an economy, there must be workable policy,” De Silva said.

He added that Sri Lanka doesn’t have time to draft and enact constitutional changes to begin transforming the economy and uplift communities, and the details enacted in the 21st amendment to the constitution proposed by the SJB was adequate to drive forward.



 With reference to the Economic Proposals espoused by the NPP (Jathika Jana Balawegaya), De Silva questioned what their plan is if it doesn’t want to work with the IMF.

SJB MP Kabir Hashim, said the NPP (then JVP) gave license to the Rajapaksas to undo proposed reforms by the then UNP Government of 2004, and blamed the NPP for having caused this crisis for failing to understand the situation and the want of power.

“Their much-awaited economic policy statement turned out to be nothing. The main problem with the NPP is there is no real analysis of the problem nor a cohesive plan of action. Anura Kumara Dissanayake is a Putin- by-day and Biden-by-night. What he says to the business community is not what he tells the public on the platform during. If people are going to fall for likes once again, we will never come out of this mess.”

They forget that the JVP is behind the movement that created this current crisis, Hashim said harking back to the JVP coalition with Rajapaka and President Kumaratunga back in 2004 to topple the UNP Government.

“There was a UNP Government in place that had embarked upon certain programmes to implement reforms. But without thinking of the people, they resorted to selfish motives of grabbing power. In 2004, Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the UNP was going to trim State sector jobs and said they wouldn›t allow it. Now in 2022, on NPP platforms he says the State sector is a huge burden to the country and that it cannot give jobs. He took 20 years to understand this. They gave power to the Rajapaksas. State institutions grew from 107 to 245 since then, with losses of over Rs. 1.2 trillion. They are stakeholders of this crisis,” Hashim added.

 - Pix by Lasantha Kumara