The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe

¶ 01 That is exactly the point. We are implementing what came with prior conditions and understandings. This is under the achieved understandings.

¶ 02 The NPP will not crash the government and create chaos internationally. We will put the country in order and move forward.

¶ 03 Those who bankrupted this country — after 76 years of misrule and Rs. 30 trillion of debt — now demand magic. The people who trusted our development program gave us a two-thirds mandate. We will implement it and remove obstacles.

¶ 04 Assume we were not bankrupt — we would still have to pay and proceed, and could negotiate better. Instead, there were deals, not negotiations. Some loan proceeds never reached Sri Lanka; we are now pursuing forensic audits. Only around 40–50% of certain loans actually came in. I will conclude the IMF part there.

¶ 05 On rebuilding the country through “Clean Sri Lanka,” this Vote on Account is for a short period; thereafter we will bring the Budget.

¶ 06 We were asked about prices — especially rice. Daily rice consumption is about 6,500 MT; monthly about 200,000 MT. Production exceeds human consumption, and rice is bought for various industries — egg, poultry, ornamental fish, etc. With 25 million laying hens and 8 million chicks, there is significant feed demand, including for broken rice.

¶ 07 On sugar: imported sugar is not subject to VAT, but domestically produced sugar is — this has pushed those factories into difficulty. We will address this. With festivals approaching, key items — potatoes, onions, lentils, sugar, flour, eggs and rice — face pressure.

¶ 08 On rice specifically: major state banks have extended about Rs. 15 billion in loans to certain large rice millers, but they have not released stocks to the market. We summoned them. We instructed both the millers and the banks. Since yesterday, many millers have started supplying to Sathosa. Before I rose, 100,000 kg had been delivered; another 50,000 kg is due this evening. We are distributing daily through Sathosa. We have notified that the MRP is Rs. 220 for Nadu, Rs. 210 for Kekulu, and Rs. 230 for Samba, and asked them to release to the open market too. Our focus on Sathosa is because these are bank-financed stocks; there was no mechanism to monitor releases otherwise.