WE HAVE LAUNCHED SEVERAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES: PM

PIC BY PRADEEP PATHIRANA Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday that Sri Lanka is affected by global issues such as trade war.

Speaking during a ceremony held in Matale to distribute Samurdhi to 5000 people on Saturday, the Prime Minister said had hurricane Florence hit the United States, it would have expounded the fuel crisis.“fuel prices would have increased to $ 80a barrel if it hit the US,” he said

“We do not know what will happen next year. Sri Lanka is affected by global issues such as trade wars. Hurricane Florence did not hit US luckily. Otherwise, a barrel of crude oil would have increased up to $ 80 a barrel if it hit the US,” the Prime Minister said. He said foreign debt services in 2019 will be $ 4000 million. Foreign debt services will be reduced after 2019.“We have increased Samurdhi in spite of these issues. We will increase the number of Samurdhi officers. We will give concessions to people in spite of difficult situations,” the Prime Minister assured.

“There were a number of issues in the recent past. We had to increase taxes. We have to get revenues. If not for that the country would be bankrupt. We thought the economy would pick up in 2017 but there was drought, floods and the Meetotumulla issue, prices of goods shot up. We were criticized continuously and we lost the local government elections at the end. Decisions have to be made. It was known that prices of essential goods would go down by Sinhala New Year this year. Some advised us to hold the local government poll after the Sinhala New year this year but we did not want the polls to be postponed further as democracy had to be upheld. We have managed to create a situation where a portion of our revenues could be allocated for concessions such as ‘Langama Pasala Hondama Pasala program (The nearest school is the best school), we have started renovating roads, Gam Peraliya, Enterprise Sri Lanka and Grama Shakthi has begun.