The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake - Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development and the Leader of the House of Parliament

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, before discussing the Standing Orders, I must address a matter raised by Hon. Ravi Karunanayake regarding a fraud at a bank in Sri Lanka. It has been revealed that, with the involvement of two employees—and possibly more—about Rs. 13.2 billion has been defrauded. The Hon. President is personally intervening. There is no impact on depositors. Banks must maintain certain capital buffers; to my recollection they must retain around 13 point something percent of core capital. This bank has close to the required percentage; therefore, there is no threat to the bank, nor to depositors. We are maintaining fiscal discipline properly.

¶ 02 The Member may be fearful because, when he was Finance Minister under the leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister, the Central Bank bond scam occurred. Under our Government, such things will not happen. If there is wrongdoing by bank owners or senior officers, it must be addressed; if there are audit issues, the Central Bank’s intervention is required. But the bank is not collapsing. That is our first message.

¶ 03 I also saw two foreign media outlets circulating a photograph of a closed fuel shed to suggest Sri Lanka’s economy is paralyzed. Globally, tensions have pushed fuel prices up and some countries face issues. But where are the queues or closed sheds here? Using media to undermine the country is wrong. Anyone can craft a narrative of bank failures, or post a photo of a closed shed somewhere. Hon. Presiding Member, this is a global situation. Recently, in Australia alone, a hundred sheds were closed; but we did not close ours. We even cancelled a public holiday to ensure fuel supply. Nevertheless, I saw AFP and Al Jazeera reporting in a misleading manner. I regret such negative portrayals when our economy is growing at 5.2 percent, without relying on facts. Perhaps some wish to bring back the old rulers. That will not happen. The people will not return to a worse government; they may choose a better one than us, but not the Rajapaksas or Ranil again. That chapter is closed.