Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) Leader MP Mano Ganesan has accused the government of having postponed the scheduled Parliamentary debate on the recent debt agreements with bilateral creditors due to issues in the deal negotiated with private bondholders.
Taking to ‘X’, MP Ganesan said the Parliamentary debate that was scheduled this week had not been postponed due to the demise of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP R. Sampanthan as claimed by the government.
“It’s not because of late MP Sambanthan’s funeral but the government cancelled the debate because it has met with snags with private bondholders. Hence, the government was unable to provide MoU copies to the parliament finance committee.
“There weren’t MoU copies! There wasn’t a debate!! Therefore, the debt restructuring process is INCOMPLETE,” he said.
Stating that the opposition wanted the debate so that all snags would be discussed, MP Ganesan said, however, they were under pressure to vote against the MoUs in parliament.
“We of the #SJB_Alliance (the United People’s Alliance) acted with responsibility as the prime opposition, the govt-in-waiting. We had decided not to vote against it but to stay away from voting after the debate, if it had occurred.
“We wanted positive messages sent to our bilateral debtors #OCC & #China that we are for restructuring,” he said.
The TPA Leader said his party as a component party in the opposition alliance, appreciates the role played by India as one of the co-chairs of the OCC, along with Sri Lanka’s international friends France and Japan.
MP Mano Ganesan pointed out that India’s single contribution of $4 Billion to Sri Lanka has been the prime most stabilisation element of its economy and helped Sri Lanka end queues in front of Gas and Fuel stations, and Food and Medical stores, bringing back the country to near normalcy and also helping reach the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“It is obvious the Sri Lankan Government unsuccessfully tried to adopt the Debt Restructuring process with its local electoral calendar,” he said.
MP Mano Ganesan further stressed this is when the prime opposition and the bilateral debtors act with responsibility in the interest of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka signed deals with China and other creditor nations to restructure about $10 billion in bilateral debt on June 26, helping it approach the end of a restructuring process that began in September 2022 after its reserves hit record lows and forced it to default on foreign debt for the first time.
Sri Lankan officials in Paris inked the agreement with the Official Creditor Committee (OCC) co-chaired by Japan, India and France which have lent a combined $5.8 billion. A separate agreement was also signed with China EXIM Bank to rework $4.2 billion of debt. (Newswire)