Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran was the sole opposition lawmaker to attend a meeting convened by Sri Lanka’s president regarding engagment with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday, as he broke a boycott against the global body’s “hard reforms”.
The Opposition SJB and JVP parties had both declared they would boycott the meeting, which was organised by Ranil Wickremesinghe to discuss his government’s engagement with the IMF.
Sri Lanka is in the midst of receiving a bailout loan from the global financial body, which is desperately needed given the ongoing financial crisis on the island. Opposition parties have been critical of conditions imposed on Sri Lanka, which included tax hikes and other measures that have reportedly disproportionately impacted the poor.
Sumanthiran though chose to attend the meeting with Wickremesinghe, despite the boycott. No other Tamil or Muslim parliamentarians attended the meeting either.
“I raised some of our concerns,” said Sumanthiran. “Firstly the absence of transparency. The IMF provides Technical Assistance Reports to the government. These reports contain an analysis of why these recommendations are made. They have so far not been made public. Today it was agreed that the copies would be provided to me and other opposition MPS on request.”
He added that through the review of the technical proposal they can evaluate if the recommendations made by the IMF have any “analytical basis” or not.
“Upon studying the reports we can say whether to support the IMF programme or not,” he told The Island. “We can see at the moment the IMF program is not beneficial to the poor of this country.”
Sumanthiran also said he raised issues such as the increasing of VAT to 18% since the start of the year, instead of raising the withholding tax which he claimed would have had a more immediate impact on revenue generation.
The President Media Division in a release, stated that “the meeting saw the active participation of various stakeholders, including TNA Parliamentarian Mr. M. A. Sumanthiran, underscoring the government’s commitment to inclusive decision-making.”
The PMD said that during “the discussions, Secretary to the Treasury Mahinda Siriwardena provided insights into the ongoing negotiations with bilateral creditors, commercial creditors, and ISBs, with an optimistic outlook towards completing the process by the end of June this year.”
Meanwhile, Opposition MP Dr Harsha de Silva told reporters that he had sought a meeting with bondholders and not with the government. “We did not ask for a meeting with the IMF,” he said, adding that he had asked in parliament for a meeting with bondholders in the presence of Wickremesinghe since any deal made by the current administration would have to be carried forward by the next party that comes into power. “If Sri Lanka strikes a deal with foreign bondholders which cannot be implemented, the country can go for a second default, he said.
