The government has not yet taken any decision on domestic debt restructuring.

Minister of State for Finance Shehan Semasinghe told Parliament yesterday (28) that the government has not yet taken any concrete decision on the domestic debt restructuring and that only various ideas and proposals are being discussed and considered in this regard.

Responding to Dr. Harsha de Silva’s speech during the parliamentary debate on the extended financial facility obtained from the International Monetary Fund, the Minister of State for Finance stated that some steps have been taken regarding a debt remedy available to the Central Bank and only ideas about a voluntary debt remedy are being discussed these days.

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Samagi Jana Balawega Member of Parliament Dr. Harsha De Silva, while delivering his speech, tabled a document indicating that the government will have to restructure the local debt, and according to the report prepared by the Ministry of Finance, time frames have been prepared to do it in the month of May. The state minister immediately responded to it and said that the tabled document is only a working paper of the various activities of the Ministry of Finance in this regard.

He said that it is very difficult to accomplish all the work in agreement with the International Monetary Fund, so in this regard, his ministry basically has different groups assigned with different tasks, and Dr. Harsha de Silva tabled only a work paper of such work undertaken by a group.