Government owes more than Rs. 8 Bn to medicine suppliers: Ramesh Pathirana

By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera

Parliament, July 23 (Daily Mirror)- The Medical Supplies Division has not settled a payment of Rs. 8.1 billion to the suppliers of medicines, Minister of Health Ramesh Pathirana said today.

He told Parliament that Rs. 4 billion out of the outstanding amount is more than tree months overdue.

The Minister said this in response to a question by SJB MP S.M. Marikkar.

The Minister said steps will be taken to settle the payments which are overdue for more than three months within this month.

Responding to a question whether the overdue payment will affect the supply of medicines in the future, the Minister said hospitals have been allocated funds to make local purchases and that the supply chain will not be affected.