The Hon. (Mrs.) Rohini Kumari Wijerathna
Hon. Rohini Kumari Wijerathna questioned the Government’s borrowing during its first five months, claiming it had raised Rs. 5,200 billion through Treasury bills and bonds, exceeding the previous year’s total revenue, and challenged the Government to identify five projects completed with those funds. She referred to earlier campaign-period allegations about short-term borrowing and said subsequent Central Bank data had confirmed her claims. She also stated that Central Bank operations had changed after she raised concerns about indirect money creation through short-term liquidity injections.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 This Government has now been in power for five months. In these five months, the Government has borrowed Rs. 5,200 billion via Treasury bills and bonds—over Rs. 520,000 crore. Last year’s total revenue was Rs. 4,000 billion. In five months, Rs. 5,200 billion has been borrowed. Is that not correct, Hon. Harsha de Silva? I challenge you—name five projects done with this money. Again, I request—name five things you did with this money.
¶ 02 During the campaign in October, when I said your social media and your supporters attacked me saying I lie, I also said you had borrowed Rs. 4,190 billion over 13 days; you insulted me. Did you not? But the Central Bank confirmed it happened. In five months, Rs. 520,000 crore has been borrowed.
¶ 03 However, I must thank the Central Bank. After I revealed in October that the Central Bank had clandestinely “printed” Rs. 100 billion through the backdoor, they changed their operations—now limiting backdoor pumping via the interbank system at low rates and curbing the “printing” done in 7- to 14-day windows.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Friday, 21 March 2025 ·No. 1747297753031842 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. (Mrs.) Rohini Kumari Wijerathna. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 21 March 2025. No. 1747297753031842. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/15790