The United National Party (UNP) today stated that there is a big difference between the country’s economic growth predicted by the IMF and the percentage announced by the government.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) following intensive calculations had predicted that Sri Lanka can only achieve a growth rate of 6.8% in the short term. That is a bid difference from the government’s claim that the growth rate will be 8.3%, UNP MP Dr Harsha de Silva said.

“According to the Central Bank report the growth this year is 7.5%, it will be 8% next year and that the year after that it will be 8.3%,” he said.

He further said that as a solution to increasing growth the IMF has proposed great changes to the government’s financial policies, namely the tax policy and increasing the government’s revenue.

Harsha stated that the IMF has also shown appreciation to the government raising electricity tariffs and fuel prices and that the government has welcomed that appreciation.

The economist also issued a warning to the government that the UNP will take nessesery action if it fails to submit the ‘Estimates Vs. Actual’ report to parliament on time.

“I would like to warn the government that there is a law in the country. Under that law there exists a Financial Responsibility Act, which stipulates that the ‘Estimates Vs. Actual’ report of country’s revenue, expenditure, cash flow and debt for the for the first four months of the year should be presented to parliament by June 30 – there is one more month.”

He stated that the for the past 3 years the government has failed to do so and that each time a question is raised the government replies saying, ‘we have given that’. “This has become a joke.”

Harsha stated that this matter was raised in parliament last week and that the government claimed they have provided the statistics in the report, even though they had shown that there is no such thing in the report.

He warned the government that they will no longer accept this attempt to deceive the country and the people.