President Ranil Wickremesinghe has acknowledged that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the only institution that can support a struggling country like Sri Lanka, and therefore, if there are alternative proposals to the government’s program, he is willing to provide the opportunity to submit them to the IMF.

He also criticized political parties for playing games and lying to the people without presenting their proposals.

“There is only one way to rebuild this collapsed economy. That is the International Monetary Fund. Different political parties are presenting different stories. I suggested to them to let me know if there is another way to resurrect the collapsed economy,” he said.

The President said this during a meeting with businessmen and lawyers in the Kandy district.

He also noted that the government has completed 15 points assigned during the negotiations with the IMF.

“The government started negotiations with the International Monetary Fund last August. Accordingly, it was possible to agree on the staff level agreement in September. They assigned us fifteen tasks to complete. The International Monetary Fund gave us until December 31 to implement it. But we couldn’t do it on that particular day. Then we made plans to get time until January 31st.  Even at that time, we were unable to complete those 15 points. Finally, the deadline was pushed back to February 15. By 06:00 pm  on February 15th, we completed all that was expected of us and sent them to Washington.”

“Only one of these fifteen issues was being delayed. It is related to the increase in electricity tariffs. The Electricity Board incurs  Rs.230 billion each year in losses. According to the International Monetary Fund, government taxes should not be used to support institutions. It was informed that if this occurs, the International Monetary Fund will not provide assistance. However, one person in this country opposed the decision to increase the electricity tariff.”

“As a result, receiving assistance from the International Fund was delayed by six weeks. Alternatively, we could have completed this by the end of January. All 15 tasks assigned to us have been completed. Now it is up to the International Monetary Fund.”