The leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya, Attorney Udaya Gammanpila, states that the current government, within five and a half months of coming into power, has obtained a loan amount of 5,156 billion rupees.
As all of us are fully aware, a debt crisis turned to a foreign currency crisis and to an economic crisis. In this backdrop, the Government should borrow cautiously and shall disclose debt figures to Parliament. Since the President failed in his duty at the budget speech, I am now ready to reveal the details about government borrowings for the first five and half months.
As at 5th March 2025, the NPP Government has borrowed Rs 5,156 billion. In order to understand the hugeness of this figure, let’s compare it with the last year government revenue. Although government has collected only Rs 4,000 billion as revenue for the entire last year, It has borrowed Rs 5,156 billion just for five and half months.
If you look at the sources of financing, Rs 3,775 billion by issuing Treasury Bills and Rs 1,063 billion by issuing Treasury Bonds. The Government has borrowed $ 1,084 million from the World Bank, ADB and IMF which amounts to Rs 318 billion. Additionally, the Government may have obtained bank overdrafts from two State banks. We don’t have access to those details.
What has Government done with this staggering amount of money. It may have used a considerable amount out of it for repayment of the public debt. However, we don’t know the actual figures. Hence, the President is duty bound to explain the nation what happened to the money borrowed.