22 July 2021 09:20 am Views - 260
Government will be compelled to increase fuel prices once again to generate dollars to pay for imports, UNP Deputy Leader Ruwan Wijewardene said yesterday.
Mr. Wijewardene who was speaking to some party activists at Sirikotha said the biggest issue today is the shortage of dollars. “Shortage of dollars will result in stoppage of essential imports. Fuel has to be imported no matter what import the government is going to ban. There would be a fuel shortage shortly if sufficient dollars are not found to pay for imports. Government will have to increase the fuel prices to generate dollars to pay for the imports, ” Mr. Wijewardene said.
“Government has already printed money worth rupees one trillion. However printing rupees will not help as what is needed to day is dollars. At the same time Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves are currently $ 4.3 billion. However it has to pay 41.3 billion as loan interests, he added.
He also said the Rs.12,000 payment which has been promised for farmers is hardly sufficient to purchase organic fertilizer.”