25 May 2023 10:12 am Views - 300
The first unrealised commitment is related to the increase in betting and gaming levies. The amendment to increase the levies was made public on April 4, 2023 but the amendment is yet to be taken up in Parliament, indicating a delay in the process.
The second failed commitment is in gaining parliamentary approval on the new Central Bank law. The bill was also made public on March 7, 2023 but is yet to be debated and approved by Parliament.
The island nation has fulfilled 25 percent of the trackable commitments under the IMF programme. According to publicfinance.lk, there appears to be a major issue affecting the progress of the commitments, which is lack of information available.
“Specifically, as of the end of March, the progress status of 10 percent of the identified commitments was marked as ‘unknown’ on the tracker, due to insufficient information being available for assessment.”
Further, Sri Lanka has partly met one of its governance commitments on establishing an online transparency platform, which was due by March 31.
The platform is expected to provide semi-annual publication of information on significant public procurement contracts, a list of firms receiving tax exemptions through the Board of Investment and a list of individuals and firms receiving tax exemptions on luxury vehicle imports.
Information relating to the latter two was published on the Finance Ministry website in April but the online transparency platform has not been created as yet.
The first review of Sri Lanka’s US $ 3 billion programme with the IMF is expected in September