By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera   

Claiming that the decision to declare a default on foreign loans was taken following discussions with the President and all other relevant authorities, Minister Ali Sabry said yesterday it was unreasonable to accuse Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe of the decision.

  The minister told Parliament that he was ready to take the responsibility as the then Finance Minister and said making accusations on the CB Governor should be stopped.  

“If there is any problem with that decision, the responsibility is with me. I was the Finance Minister then. I am ready to face any thing. But, don’t go after honest and brave officials who have done what is best for the country. He never wanted this. We wanted him to come. The Former President wanted him . He has come and done a job. There is some sort of conspiracy to get rid of him. I think, we are not in agreement with that,” he said.  
Minister Sabry said Sri Lanka had to settle a loan of USD 203 million by April and that there was only USD 17 million in the reserves.  
“We did not suspend paying loans while funds in hand. There was no sufficient funds in the reserves to make the payments. We wanted funds to pay for other essentials such as for food and medicine. We had to give priority for them than paying loans. We discussed with the President, Finance Ministry officials, international experts and all those concerned before making the decision to go for a default,” he said.  

The Minister said the country had faced a default by April even before officially announcing the default.  
 “Local banks had defaulted USD 99 million in total by April 12. There was nothing to default. We had already faced a default,” he said.  

The Minister there was only 17 million in reserves when former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivaard Cabraal left the position and that most of the reserves had been used to stabilize the rupee against the Dollar. We have managed to stabilize the rupee at least of the current rate due to the decision we took,” he said. 

• Sri Lanka had to settle a loan of USD 203 million by April and that there was only USD 17 million in the reserves