We took loan to pay the loan taken by the former regime – Finance Minister

Mar 18, 2016

Finance minister Ravi Karunanayaka said that contradictions exists in the accounts submitted to the expenditures made by the Mahinda Rajapaksa governance which took loan to build the Maththala airport and the Katunayaka highway.

Finance minister Ravi Karunanayaka convening a media briefing said the above as a respond to the allegation made by former President recently that his governance was not responsible for the current fiscal crisis faced by country but the current government.

Finance minister who explained the discrepancy between the loan taken and the expenditures spent with statistics and said the expenditures are not clear hence the current government is bound to pay the loans taken.

Higher interest rates
Finance minister said that he has published the financial figures of the accounts published and loans taken for higher interest rates and announced the Mahinda Rajapaksa governance to publish the accounts for the unaccounted money.

Further stating the finance minister said the current government has taken loans not to any other purpose but to pay the loans taken by the former regime. Finance mister stressed that the new government would not burden the people to pay the loans taken by the previous government.

Finance minister pointed out that the current government has to pay the loss incurred by the previous regime of importing rice from Bangladesh and the loss acquired from the Sri Lankan airlines.