Construction sector tells government to settle dues issuing treasury bills

The country’s construction sector has recommended to the government to issue them with treasury bills in lieu of their dues if no cash is available.

The government owes the country’s contractors over Rs.200 billion. Out of this, Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe recently said, Rs.25 billion will be settled by end of this year. 

“As the dues for large-scale contractors are very high, we strongly recommend that these funds are utilised to settle SME sector dues first, as this would provide relief for a larger number of SME contractors,” Ceylon Institute of Builders President Dr. Rohan Karunaratne said.

“Allocating these funds to large-scale contractors may lead to partial satisfaction of massive dues of a limited number of contractors and would leave contractors’ finances suspended midway,” he added.

“It is recommended that the government can tackle large-scale contractors’ bills via issuing treasury bills if no cash is available at this juncture, “he further said. 

Dr. Karunaratne thanked the Central Bank Governor for this arrangement, and expressed hope that the resumption of important infrastructure projects in the country from next year would solve a large part of the problem.

“Furthermore, the government should encourage funding agencies to continue with their funded projects in Sri Lanka. This may allow about 30-40 percent of contractors to survive and prevent further retrenchment of workers and to restart SME sector companies that are part of the construction supply chain,” he noted.