30 August 2022 12:00 am Views - 166
Claiming that the government was planning to privatize state-owned enterprises such as the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) in accordance with IMF conditions, National People’s Power (NPP) MP Vijitha Herath yesterday said a similar move to privatize the CEB on IMF conditions were thwarted by the JVP in 2005.
He told Parliament that there were moves in 2005 to privatize the CEB on IMF conditions when the JVP was in the Cabinet during the Chandrika Bandaranaike government and that the move was thwarted due to the intervention of the JVP.
“The CEB would have been privatized in 2005 if not for JVP’s intervention. We warned to withdraw from the Cabinet if the CEB was privatized and the proposal was then withdrawn ,” he said.
The MP said Article 4 report issued by the IMF Director Board in March 2, 2022 clearly stated four conditions such as cutting down tax concessions and imposing new taxes, reforming state-owned enterprises, introducing cost recovery energy prices and fight against corruption and that four out of the IMF conditions except for fight against corruption had been implemented.
He said fuel, gas prices and electricity tariffs were increased as per the conditions of the IMF and said government should tell the actual reason behind these increases without suppressing the actual reasons.
He said the reasons that led to the losses of the CEB should be ascertained and provided solutions instead of privatizing the institute.