SL has outstanding bill of Rs.50 bn for pharmaceuticals: RW

Sri Lanka is facing a daunting task of settling an outstanding bill of Rs. 50 billion for pharmaceuticals this year, President Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament today.

President said efforts have been made to settle at least Rs.30 to Rs. 40 billion within this year.

“We have had successful discussions with China and India in debt restructuring but that does not mean that we get funds overnight. We have to increase the revenue. An allegation is being made that no funds have been allocated for the purchase of medicines. However we have allocated Rs.10 billion to purchase medicines. In addition it is essential to allocate funds for other matters,” the President said.

“Some are telling us that we should not celebrate our 75th independence anniversary this year. However we have planned more activities other than the usual celebration. Accordingly we have decided to set up an Institute of History, Institute of Economics, Institute of women and gender, University of Government and public policy, regional university of climate change and a sports university. We also intend introducing new laws such as the Gender Equality Act, Women’s Empowerment Act, Climate Change act and Living Entity act. All these will be done to see that there is a new nation by the time Sri Lanka celebrates its centenary of independence. I also request the opposition to support us to change the political system of our country,” he added. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)