ECONOMYNEXT – There will be owed 656 billion rupees of debt taken over by Sri Lanka’s central government to be offset by taxes on fuel by the beginning of 2025, Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said.
The Treasury took over 1,200 billion rupees of debt (3.4 billion US dollars) in 2022 and a 25 rupee tax was imposed on fuel, he said in a twitter.com message.
The tax was later increased to 50 rupees in 2023, he said.
At the end of it is estimated that 656 billion rupees will remain to be offset by taxes, Wijesekera said.
At this rate it would take another four years (2029) to offset the debt, he said.
The tax however is imposed on all operators.
Wijesekera was responding to comments made by National Peoples’ Power leader Anura Dissanayake.
The CPC ended up with large volumes of debt partly due to forex shortages coming from flexible inflation targeting (cutting rates with inflationary open market operations claiming that historical 12-month inflation index was below 5-oct) with a peg.
(Colombo/Aug28/20240