84 private bond issues during last regime to be probed: PM

 

2017-11-30

The Government intended to start up a probe on bond issues that had taken place from 2008 to 2014 totalling Rs. 5,147 billion, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament today.

Making a special statement in the House, the Prime Minister said these bond issues had been made on private placements, without informing the Monetary Board or the Central Bank and Parliament.

He said 90 percent of those bond issues had been done on private placements, while issues have also been done through using EPF, ETF and National Savings Bank as captive sources.

"We will get the Finance Committee in Parliament to probe these bond issues, which have been done according to whims and fancies of certain persons. These are more or less similar to pyramid schemes," he said.  

The Prime Minister also informed Parliament that probes would be conducted on the frauds that had taken place in the stock market between 2008 and 2014.

He said bonds had been issued under direct placements only in four instances under the present regime, while there have been 84 instances of issuing bonds during the tenure of the last regime.

Mr. Wickremesinghe added that he has got all the details on bond issues from 2008 to 2014 from the Central Bank.(Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)