Meeting with IMF a must: Bandula

It was compulsory to request a meeting with IMF authorities in Washington, before presenting the budget, MP Bandula Gunawardane said.

The IMF facility is scheduled to be provided in six tranches as per the agreement between Sri Lanka and IMF signed in 2016

The IMF facility is scheduled to be provided in six tranches as per the agreement between Sri Lanka and IMF signed in 2016. MP Gunawardena said that the approval of the IMF was a necessity to obtain the last tranche of the extensive IMF loan facility. MP Gunawardena said that there were four conditions that had been imposed by IMF to be fulfilled.

“These conditions are reducing the gap of the budget to some extent; create the flexible foreign exchange, privatizing State enterprises and increasing foreign reserves,” he said. “Not getting the last tranche will lead to serious problems and it will be a serious problem to process the budget as well,” he said.