UNP MP Ajith Perera told today that had the government followed the agreements of the International Monitory Fund (IMF) in a more realistic manner when covering up losses in the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), increasing tariffs would not have been required today.

“The IMF had requested the government to break even the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), to release the loans in 2009 and 2010,” he said.

“Now that the IMF had refused to give any loans for the next year, the government turned towards China. But China also refused to lend any money because the situation in the country is worse,” he said.

Commenting on the chaos in parliament during the past two days, he said the government had deprived the people of freedom of expression.

“We stood against the tariff hike and to protect the average citizen. But Government MPs disrupted our protest. Media statements for the electronic media were also not released yesterday,” he said.  

He also said their candle light protest was a success and that TNA MPs and MP J C Ranga also joined them.(Lahiru Pothmulla, Yohan Perera)