The Hon. Sajith Premadasa - Leader of the Opposition

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, no step taken by this Government benefits the country or the people. Is this about importing substandard coal? Is it about proposing electricity tariff hikes? They spoke of “Praja Shakthi”—what people’s power? It is the power of cartels and of the JVP. They present proposals on grassroots lending and microfinance without any understanding of their history—from Sarvodaya SEEDS, “Jana Saviya,” and Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank model. What evolved was the commercialization of micro-lending, turning it into business that crushes the small person, undermining voluntary, community-based organizations and grassroots women’s movements, turning microfinance into a profit‑driven operation to protect big players. Do they even prohibit online mafias and illegal lending? Consumer protection here is not by public officials but by license-holders—big banks and big finance institutions—who are given special advantages.

¶ 02 Women’s representation in the relevant authorities is minimized. Tomorrow is International Women’s Day. Yet they bring orders that destroy women‑led grassroots rural and urban credit programmes, targeting the poor in the North and East, estate communities, rural and urban poor, agriculture, fisheries, SOE workers, informal and unorganized sectors—even funeral aid societies—dragging them into the CRIB. This is a highly dangerous process.

¶ 03 Regulation is necessary. Why is it necessary? Because robust small community groups were destroyed, and large banks and finance institutions turned microfinance into their money‑spinning business, leaving vast numbers strangled in a deadly debt noose. Loan‑shark outfits have contributed to many suicides. What is needed is not a death blow to small community microfinance operations, but regulation of loan sharks and large banks/finance companies that converted people’s microfinance into their business. That is the duty. Do not claim you run people‑friendly programmes while importing substandard coal and burdening tariffs.

¶ 04 Think of women, women‑headed households, small self‑employed rural people, and those in the informal sector—men and women alike. Please amend this Bill to protect them.