Monday 23rd December, 2024

The much-awaited good news has come at last. On Friday, Fitch Ratings upgraded Sri Lanka’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘CCC+’, from ‘RD’ (Restricted Default). Heartening as this positive development is, it by no means indicates that the Sri Lankan economy is out of the woods yet; what it signifies is that the economic crisis management measures are yielding desired results, but there is much more to be done for full recovery to be achieved.

Sri Lanka’s bankruptcy was an orphan, but the rating increase has many fathers, including the NPP leaders, who try to justify their inability to find immediate solutions to other burning issues such as the escalating prices of rice and coconuts by claiming that ‘children are not born immediately after honeymoons’.

Sri Lanka’s rating improvement is no mean achievement, and the credit for it should go to the ordinary people, who have been bearing untold hardships in the name of economic recovery, the IMF, other lending institutions, the countries such as India, which granted much-needed loans for the procurement of essentials to prevent this country from descending into anarchy, the officials of the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank, and former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had the courage to adopt unpopular yet essential measures to tackle the economic crisis.

Ironically, the amount of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt which has been restructured is almost equal to what the UNP-led Yahapalana government borrowed, according to what ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said in his book, ‘The Conspiracy’ (p. 25). Rajapaksa says the UNP-led government (2015-2019) issued International Sovereign Bonds (ISBs) to the tune of USD 12 bn, and towards the end of 2019, the country’s outstanding ISBs amounted to about USD 15 bn, and its total foreign reserves were at USD 7. 6 bn whereas at the end of 2014, when the Mahinda Rajapaksa government collapsed, the outstanding ISBs totalled only USD 5 bn.

If so, one can argue that Wickremesinghe has only helped right a wrong the Yahapalana government committed. The JVP backed the UNP-UPFA coalition, which was on a borrowing spree, and propped up the UNP, after the UPFA’s breakaway in 2018, although the JVP leaders and Wickremesinghe are at daggers drawn at present.

The holier-than-thou SJB bigwigs were in the Yahapalana Cabinet, which was responsible for reckless borrowing. The TNA, the SLMC, etc., also supported the Yahapalana administration, especially the UNP. The SLPP bankrupted the economy. Thus, no party represented in the current Parliament can absolve itself of the blame for the country’s economic crisis.

The JVP-led NPP has stooped so low as to resort to ageism in a bid to ridicule Wickremesinghe; it calls him a seeya (grandpa) with his productive years behind him, but his ‘seeyanomics’ seems to have worked, and it is now up to the NPP leaders who consider themselves youthful, in spite of being in their 50s, 60s and 70s, to ensure that the current economic recovery process will stay on course.

What they as well as the Opposition must do is to stop playing politics with the ongoing bailout programme. Thankfully, the NPP has realised the gravity of the economic situation since its ascent to power and refrains from carrying out some of its election promises, the implementation of which would have caused a drastic drop in state revenue. But it will have to ensure that its relief programmes are properly targeted.

The Opposition, especially the SJB, should also act responsibly, without trying to earn brownie points with the public at the expense of the economic recovery efforts. It should stop pressuring the government to do things that are bound to entail heavy economic costs, such as haphazard tax cuts, huge pay hikes for the public sector workers and ad hoc relief measures.

That the NPP made a host of Machiavellian promises, while in opposition, to capture power is no reason why the SJB, etc., should try to make the incumbent government do what will stand in the way of economic recovery.

Meanwhile, the government has unveiled a proposal to effect PAYE tax reductions and increase the withholding tax (WHT) from 5% to 10%. It says those who receive less than Rs. 150,000 a month by way of interest income will not be affected by the WHT hike, but the proof of the pudding is said to be in the eating.

Now that the government has promised tax relief to professionals, it must ensure that the state employees who will benefit from the proposed PAYE reductions earn their keep by working diligently; they must be made to use biometric attendance marking systems like other workers, and their outputs should be regularly assessed.