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Message: <blockquote data-quote="monson" data-source="post: 20260757" data-attributes="member: 30005">‘Several expressway projects to resume on purse-easy terms’By Hiran H.SenewiratneLack of national planning during the tenure of the last MR regime caused severe damage to the economy as a result of implementing projects, such as, the Hambantota port and Mattala airport. In these projects, costs were high and internal returns or return on investment (ROI) to the country were lacking, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said. He added that the government is planning to resume several expressway projects by raising loans on very concessional terms, in contrast to the former regime."Getting commercial loans are the easiest today, but getting them at 6 percent to 7 percent is damaging. As a result, the burden has been passed on to all of you who are the taxpayers of this country and the hard earned profits of institutions like the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) are used to set off these debts, which are incurred by institutions which are not even generating a revenue of Rs.3 million a month despite their investment which is as high as Rs.58 billion, Minister Karunanayake said. He was speaking at the first Founder's Day oration of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka (CMA), which was held last week at HNB towers, Colombo. The title of the talk was ‘National Government Towards a National Economy.'He said the government in now planning to resume the construction of expressways, namely, Southern and Colombo- Kandy, by raising loans at concessional rates, not on high interest rates, like the previous government.Citing an example, the minister said that within the past 16 months the government had given approvals for three major expressway projects and has saved 21 percent of the cost, compared to the costs incurred by similar projects the previous regime had signed up for during the past 6 to 7 years."Today the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had its Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM). OECD helps governments to tackle the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalised economy, he said.He said Sri Lanka stands at 6th position in OECD rankings and if we can get into third or fourth position we could save up to 8 percent to 9 percent in our cost of interest."The government’s foreign policy is to be allies with everyone and best examples were the invitation to G7, EU fishery ban lift and GSP+ which will have positive results within the next 100 days, he added.In addition, Karunanayake said the Monetary Act, the Banking Act and the Exchange Control Act will see some significant changes in the next three weeks.He said the government expects 13.8 percent to 14 percent revenue to GDP by end of the year, which is currently at 12.9 percent."The revenue has increased significantly during the past 16 months. During the previous regime the revenue to GDP was around 10percent to 11 percent. Excise Department revenue has increased by 5 percent, while Customs has gone up by 35 percent due to the government's prudent policies, the minister added.- <a href="http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=146460" target="_blank">http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=146460</a></blockquote>

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