By Charumini de Silva

Cabinet Co-Spokesman and Plantation Industries Minister Dr. Ramesh Pathirana

The Government yesterday said it had instructed the Central Bank to ensure financial institutions did not charge exorbitant interest rates on customer borrowings.

“President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has directed Central Bank to impose the financial moratoriums and regulate,” Cabinet Co-Spokesman and Plantation Industries Minister Dr. Ramesh Pathirana said at the post-Cabinet meeting media briefing yesterday. He was responding to a question posed regarding some financial institutions charging high rates, despite Government claims of their being a low interest rate environment.

Pathirana said the issue was taken up at the Parliamentary standing committee meeting which had been attended by Central Bank 

officials.

“We have observed that some finance companies have not extend the financial moratoriums as instructed during the third wave of COVID-19 and have tried to reschedule those loans at exorbitant interest rates.”

It was noted that some firms were rescheduling loan interest rates as high as 23%, when the Central Bank had imposed a 6.5% interest rate for three-month loan schemes.

The Minister said Central Bank officials had been directed to regulate and execute the directions.

“We hope the Central Bank will intervene and ensure that the directives set out to banks and financial institutions are adhered to without further burdening the general public.” 

No scarcity of essential goods, claims Govt.