Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said today those who are paid to shout against the agreement with India will learn a lesson when the people get to the streets soon.

“No one should waste time on unwanted things because the government will not stray from its journey towards developing Sri Lanka’s economy, myself, Minister S. B. Dissanayake and Deputy Minister Harsha De Silva will not deviate from our journey,” he said at Ape Gama during the launch of the systematic country diagnostic study by the World Bank Group.

He referred to the minister and the deputy minister because they were present at the launch.
The Prime Minister who insisted on a strong commitment from the state machinery said the government expected the effective use of funds allocated to each institution.

“We expect results from public servants,” he said and urged the private sector to put its shoulder to the wheel instead of continuing a wait and see policy.

The Prime Minister said only ordinary people pay taxes and bear a great burden for the sake of the country. He said it was his generation which paid a host of taxes such as death duty, wealth tax and several other taxes while the present generation did not bear that much of a tax burden.

Besides, he said Sri Lanka should move away from the South-Asian way of thinking and adopt policies based on an East-Asian line of thinking. The Prime Minister said the government would ensure that money goes into the hands of the poor.

He said the government was focused on eradicating poverty, ensuing that the inflation rate is low, double the gross domestic product and make Sri Lanka a high-income-earning country by 2025. The Prime Minister said the World Bank would support the government to achieve these policies.(Yohan Perera)

Pix by Samantha Perera