The Hon. J.C. Alawathuwala

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson of Committees, the previous speaker seemed alarmed—perhaps sleepless without a ministerial post. Regardless, the country is in a very difficult place. As the Leader of the Opposition said, after your Government has ruled for about a year and a half, hundreds of thousands have lost jobs. We will table the details—do not panic.

¶ 02 At present, the MAS Holdings facility at Thulhiriya has been closed—after you came to power. The Hirdaramani factory at Nivitigala has been closed. Many small and medium factories have shut, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs. I doubt the Acting Labour Minister even knows these facts.

¶ 03 The Central Bank Governor has clearly said inflation has risen to around seven percent. A previous Member claimed the rupee has strengthened; but since President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s period, under your rule the dollar has moved from about Rs. 290 to around Rs. 336–340.

¶ 04 (An Hon. Member: 342.)

¶ 05 Today it is about Rs. 342 to the dollar. Is that “strength”? People are struggling to live. Poverty exceeds 30 percent. Prices of all essentials are up. A higher dollar means higher import prices for everything, including inputs for our exports, pushing up production costs. This is not what you are claiming; the country is heading to an unfortunate place.

¶ 06 On the new Rules under the Central Bank Act: we saw this in 2002 and again during the end of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s period—exporters’ dollars were tightly controlled; the 90-day retention was cut to a month. This is not new; it signals where we are headed. That is our warning today.