Dr Harsha de Silva, Member of Parliament for the Samagi Janabalawegaya says that some large-scale investors are creating WhatsApp groups to manipulate the Colombo Stock Exchange unnecessarily by claiming that the stock market provides insider information. Addressing a media briefing yesterday (31), he said that these investors had hit the stock market in the past as well and that the worst damage had been done to the EPF.
Dr Harsha de Silva further stated that in the face of this Covid crisis, some banks and businesses are making unlimited profits and at the same time the entire population and the small business community are facing a severe crisis.
“The government has said that we have an alternative economic model that strengthens the local economy, protects the local entrepreneur and protects the local farmer. They pledged that we will strengthen Sri Lanka through that alternative economic program.” What they did first was reduced the taxes losing a high amount of money to government coffers. Their people were given the opportunity to enjoy themselves. We see the profits of these institutions rising by billions of rupees. Now small and medium enterprises are stuck in a very difficult position as they are unable to repay the loan instalment. But even in such a situation, the profits of the banks for the whole year 2020 have increased more than in 2019. For example, the Bank of Ceylon’s profits has skyrocketed.
We see some investors creating WhatsApp groups and artificially raising the stock market by exchanging what they call insider information. Nobody knows what this road will be like, but I am saying that a small group is making a lot of money during this epidemic and depositing it in various local and foreign banks without paying taxes, ”said Dr Harsha de Silva.
