Hon. (Dr.) Nishantha Samaraweera
Hon. (Dr.) Nishantha Samaraweera stated that taxes were necessary to maintain uninterrupted fuel supplies and meet large debt obligations under IMF-related arrangements, while seeking to avoid undue burdens on the public. He said Government decisions were taken collectively and not for private gain, contrasting this with past mismanagement, theft, waste, and corruption. He argued that current technical shortcomings should not be labelled as fraud and said the priority should be easing public pressure arising from global conditions.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 I will conclude.
¶ 02 Taxes are not imposed out of desire. We must ensure uninterrupted fuel supplies while servicing enormous debt—close to a trillion rupees for certain components alone—under agreements with the IMF. We are proceeding accordingly. The Government is acting responsibly to avoid unnecessary burdens on the public.
¶ 03 We discuss and decide collectively; no unilateral decisions are taken. Our Government’s Members and Ministers never make decisions for private gain. Those who engaged in rackets and theft were removed by the people.
¶ 04 Your time is up.
¶ 05 I conclude. The past crisis was caused by mismanagement, theft, waste, and corruption. Now some try to label even technical shortcomings as “fraud.” That is not ignorance, it is pettiness.
¶ 06 The real focus should be to relieve people from pressure caused by global conditions, not to further agitate them. With that emphasis, I conclude. Thank you, Mr. Presiding Member.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 17 March 2026 ·No. 23387 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: Hon. (Dr.) Nishantha Samaraweera. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 17 March 2026. No. 23387. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/3068