{"id":158880,"date":"2016-03-09T01:59:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T20:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=158880"},"modified":"2016-03-09T21:57:24","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T16:27:24","slug":"rajapaksa-sentenced-sri-lanka-into-a-10-trillion-debt-trap-pm-wickremesinghe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-sentenced-sri-lanka-into-a-10-trillion-debt-trap-pm-wickremesinghe\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajapaksa Sentenced Sri Lanka Into A 10 Trillion Debt Trap: PM Wickremesinghe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has charged that the Mahinda Rajapaksa led administration has sentenced the country into a debt trap of almost Rs. 10 trillion.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ranil-wickremesinghematch-08-2016\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday<\/span><\/a>, Wickremesinghe alleged that due to the arbitrary procedures adopted by the previous government, the country is today submerged in a debt of Rs. 9.5 trillion. \u201cThis could even be Rs. 10 trillion,\u201d Wickremesinghe said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_151519\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/no-scapegoats-we-will-establish-a-truth-commission-and-a-compassionate-council-ranil-wickremesinghe\/ranil-39\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-151519\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151519\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-151519\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Ranil--300x280.jpg\" alt=\"Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe\" width=\"300\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Ranil--300x280.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Ranil-.jpg 779w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-151519\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/p><\/div>\n<p>But according to the Premier, instead of taking loans like previous governments and trying to get out of this crisis, his government was looking at increasing the income from within the country. \u201cThis is what we are trying to do,\u201d he said, soon after proposing several tax amendments.<\/p>\n<p>To get out of the current dept trap; Wickremesinghe said that his government was specifically focusing on bringing in new investments to the country, increasing job opportunities and exports, and implement an effective and proactive income tax process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven when we were drafting the national budget for 2016, we still did not have the exact information about the debt situation the country was in. The previous government had hid all these information. It was a typical situation where the skeletons were hidden in the cupboard,\u201d Wickremesinghe charged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven though the Rajapaksa\u2019s made a huge racket saying they were building roads and highways, it is our government that has to pay for these,\u201d he said. According to Wickremesinghe, the debt of the highway ministry alone stands at Rs. 24 billion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Rajapakse\u2019s ate and sent the bill to us to pay,\u201d he added.<strong><em> (\u00a0By Munza Mushtaq @ Colombo Telegraph )<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":151519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rajapaksa Sentenced Sri Lanka Into A 10 Trillion Debt Trap: PM Wickremesinghe - 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