The country can be Ranils budget can recover the country in two years

Everyone should come together for the country

The IMF taught the country the lesson which it did not learn

The country-people should be given what they need and not what is popular

Ravi talks about Ranil's budget

Former Minister of Finance and the UNP Colombo district leader, Ravi Karunanayake emphasized that if everyone works together for the sake of the country under the Interim Budget proposal presented by President Ranil Wickramasinghe, the economy can be improved and the country can be brought back to normal while improving the living standards of the people within another two years.

Former Finance Minister and United National Party's Colombo district leader Mr. Ravi Karunanayake made these comments at a press conference held on Thursday (01) in Colombo where he further stated.

I appreciate you for attending this conference. I thought of making a few words without being silent about the interim budget that as a former Finance Minister on the interim budget that has been presented at a difficult time.

I felt it because I had a similar opportunity in 2015. Since the country was undergoing the same situation at that time, I thought of commenting on this. When the economy and the country collapsed in 2015 and the gross domestic product was around 8.2% of income, we could increase it to 15% within 33 months. I would like to remind you that  at that time the Prime Minister was Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe. He gave us a lot of advice. Then Secretary Mr. Samrasinghe is a person with economic vision. The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank was Mr. Nandall Weerasinghe. The same group today has to find answers for the same problem. I think it is an opportunity given by fate. Why did it happen? The objective in 2015 was to reach 15%.

At that time, the expenditure of about One Hundred and Ninety billion was not accounted for at this time. As you know, I am talking at a time where around Two Hundred billion has not been accounted for. That is why those who serve in services such as infrastructure, construction of Roads, for building roads, education sector, and health sector have not been paid.

Now this is the priority given to the private sector. Today, the government says again that it should go in that direction. We did that day. What the government needs to do is to make far-reaching plans like making policies, but not to do business. The same thing is quoted today.

Sri Lanka got independence 75 years ago. Still the economy is remaining at the same level. So we need to talk about how to get it out. That's why I thought that the situation that was there in 2015 again has emerged in 2022. The same goal should be reached.

I think one thing. Even though the IMF is a group today, there is no need to furnish the budget to them. Even though foreigners want our innocent people to dance, they want the problems to continue in these counties. The only country I know is Korea. Both sides are given a small piece of cheese to take from one side to the other. The only thing to do is to move on without answering these questions. But today the IMF label is needed.

If we go to a Doctor with a mouthful of sugar, he will tell us that we have diabetes. The doctor will that that if you want to die, live like this. But if you want to live, you have to amputate a finger, hand or a leg. Now what do we choose? This is what has happened to Sri Lanka today. My sadness is that after 5 years, from 2017, the same situation has emerged. This is what always happens in our country. For a country to develop it takes many years. It’s like a jungle taking a long time to grow. But a fire match can destroy the whole jungle within munities. This is what has happened to Sri Lanka.

There is no point in blaming others and we should work as a team. There is no point in worrying about what has happened. We have to think like Korea. There are several places in Sri Lanka that are said to be like Korea. But look how many examples we can get from Korea.  Therefore, instead of putting these things aside and hanging boards in protests in every corner, how many good ideas do the youth have..? We need to come up with a work order that can collect the ideas of youth and move forward as a country.

We need to keep standing with boards only if the question is not answered in 24 hours. If this is the case, how can foreigners be brought to this country? The best example is if the country has savings which can be invested. If there is no investment, we need to create those entrepreneurs through banks with our own courage. If we don't have both of these, we should bring in investors and do something that will benefit the country. No foreign investors will come to Sri Lanka when there are protests in every corner. We don’t want bring investors from abroad. We have our own locals. We have to bring from abroad if there are no Sri Lankans to invest in the country.

I don't see this as a complete budget and there are some good things also. But there are drawbacks as well. We don't need to be advocates. We should talk about the weaknesses and strengths in this.  

The budget has increased the revenue aspect. It is very good. We were pulled up when we imposed a tax of 15%. We wanted to increase it up to 20% by 2019. But how many people today say that this problem would not have arisen if that system had been continued. But people wanted a change claiming that we need a country to live rather than our stomach. We threw away about 600 million and pushed the country into an economic abyss in vain.

The International Monetary Fund said that there is no necessity for you to ask from us.  If you continued what you were doing in 2016 and 2017, this crisis would not have emerged. Whatever has happened, we have a way of coming out of it. We have to control the expenditure even though it is not possible.   Since the economy has collapsed while the revenue has gone down. 

850,000 million and 230,000 million as administrative cost to bring Janasaviya. Where has this gone? This benefit is gained by those who have. But not those that don't have.  There is nothing to hide. We have to set targets for these types of things. We have to protest with boards for these types of things. I highlight these things because of my affection towards the country. Since everyone is criticizing wrong things and not correct things. If we get together, we can bring the country back to normal is not impossible within two years. After we came in 2015, we talked about the pension. Now there are 17 lakhs here. Everyone says that from every political party, even those holding boards today say that this is more than what is needed. But they are shy and afraid to say something about the real situation. There is no harm to the public servants who are coming forward and those who are working now to speak without fear. For those who are coming forward, they need to set this up in a new way.

Who can we get forward if we have to spend 1300 billion when we get only 1500 billion? When this amount is increasing, the bankruptcy of the country will further get worsened. Are we waiting for it? That is why the IMF says that if we cannot think of a way, how can they think? They are afraid of making the move.

But if they took the lead by this time this crisis would have come to an end. Politics should give correct things to people. But not popular things. I saw that Rs. 365,000 million had been reserved for fertilizer. But if the voucher system is implemented, it would have been much more pragmatic. It would have enhanced the productivity of farming. I say this with practical experience.

Education is also the same. I think we have come to the correct path. Establishing more Universities is a good thing. Everyone is commending that. If 2500 million dollars are spent by our children for foreign education, why can we set up six seven universities in this beautiful country. I came to know that Peradenia University has been declared as one of the most beautiful universities in the world. It has about 1200 hectares. That means a place with about 2000 acres. It has an income of about one million US dollars. The University of Peradeniya is a place where such an asset has been suppressed. So, keeping this amount of money in that manner  will not make it productive. Its effectiveness has not been appreciated. I thought that I should use this time to comment about that issue too.