The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, though Government has 159 MPs, the Opposition stands stronger. Governance must be run from the Presidential Secretariat, not from political party offices. Parliamentarians must rebuild public trust. That is why I proposed abolishing MPs’ pensions. We need a united national plan, not individual agendas. Achieving a primary surplus of 2.3% and increasing revenue from Rs. 4,100 to Rs. 5,000 billion—finding Rs. 900 billion—is not easy; already 50 days of the year have passed.

¶ 02 On vehicle imports: members promised cars at Rs. 1.2 million; instead even motorbikes are Rs. 1.2 million now. Revenue does not rise merely by higher prices. LCs opened amount to only USD 82 million against a needed USD 1 billion—just 8%. We need a significant policy shift. A car costing Rs. 2 million in Japan becomes Rs. 20 million here—an artificial Rs. 18 million added via taxes/levies is unsustainable. Also, Japanese banks are reportedly not accepting LCs from our banks; “The Colombo Post” reported even last Friday that LCs had not been opened. Please address.

¶ 03 On SriLankan Airlines: Rs. 20 billion is allocated in this Budget to service its debt; Rs. 102 billion was spent from May 2023 to September 2024 already, yet the problem remains. Even with a good chair like Sarath Ganegoda, external shocks like oil prices can sink finances. The President said no more Treasury funds will go to SriLankan; we heard that before. Therefore, move to a public-private partnership; manage it as a loss leader if strategically needed, but privatize management. There remains about USD 900 million (Rs. 270 billion) debt on the balance sheet.