|
(Lanka-e-News-06.April.2013, 11.30PM) It is being widely questioned whether SL will also face the same disaster as Cyprus which has driven itself into a debt trap causing the Banks in that country to collapse? According to The Randora news service, the wealthy shareholders of SL Banks , local and foreign ,realizing the Cyprus crisis as an ominous signal to them are in the process of selling their Bank shares.Umar Kumar Sharma a popular and leading senior Indian businessman engaged in business for a long period in SL , has sold all his shares in the Nations Trust bank last Thursday (4th April). Sharma was the former owner of Continental Hotel. The Chairman of the Union Bank ,Alex Lowell is also preparing to sell all his Bank shares , the same The Randora news service revealed.Purportedly , Lowell had sold his shares since he has got a good price for his shares. But , economic experts say , that is not what was told by the Chairman of the Bank. Earlier on Lanka e news reported that the CitiBank too was planning to close down.
Having got wind of the fact that the future of the banks are bleak in SL , the affluent shareholders are selling their Bank shares , economic specialists say.
Meanwhile a high ranking official of the Hatton National Bank speaking to Lanka e news said , the deposits of the people in the Banks are diminishing rapidly , while the withdrawals of the deposits are also fast rising. The recoveries of ODs granted by the Bank was also very less during the last revenue year . The borrowers being unable to pay back the ODs wish the Banks to acquire the properties that have been given as collateral to the Banks.
The latter are in a deep quandary because they are neither able to recover the loans nor sell the properties , since in the present climate nobody is coming forward to buy properties. The Banks in Sri Lanka are therefore currently in dire peril, the top notch Bank officer told with concern.
Following the collapse of the Banks in Cyprus, the people’s deposits over one lakh euro dollars are to made liable to a 40% tax. The Sri Lankans abroad who are watching the developments there have become apprehensive that there is room for the MaRa despots, the lawless brutes and economy destroyers could take a similar decision ahead .
Sri Lankans abroad have deposited their monies mostly in the NRFC accounts. Many of these depositors who contacted Lanka e news said , they are seriously contemplating to transfer these funds to another country.
The Cyprus Banks collapsed because the loans taken by that country were so colossal that the entire income of that country was not enough to pay the loan installments. Sad to say , SL is also in a similar situation. Since the Rajapakse regime’s advent , the loans taken during its short tenure in office is two to three fold in excess of the total loans taken by all the previous governments. Presently , the whole income of the country is not enough to repay the loan installments. By January this year , the country’s export earnings had dropped drastically by 18%, media reported.
When SL begged for another loan from the IMF , the latter declined citing the reason that a loan cannot be given to repay loan installments.
This impending economic catastrophe was perceived first by the owners of Banks. They are taking measures to safeguard their interests. Apart from the State Banks , the Sampath Bank , the Commercial Bank and Hatton National Bank that were brought under the control of the Rajapakses and which are aware of these ominous trends , are however pretending that they are unaware.
