{"id":800,"date":"2011-10-17T05:51:42","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T05:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/?p=800"},"modified":"2020-07-26T16:34:39","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T11:04:39","slug":"wikileaks-we-have-done-all-that-the-imf-asked-basil-said-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-we-have-done-all-that-the-imf-asked-basil-said-to-us\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks: We Have Done All That The IMF Asked \u2013 Basil To US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u201cRajapaksa said that the government has done all that the IMF has asked, highlighting in particular the government\u2019s efforts to raise additional revenue by raising the Nation Building Tax from 1 percent to 3 percent,\u201d the US embassy Colombo informed Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_64861\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Basil-Colombo-Telegraph.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-64861\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64861\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Basil-Colombo-Telegraph.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"780\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Basil-Colombo-Telegraph.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Basil-Colombo-Telegraph-300x292.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Basil-Colombo-Telegraph-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-64861\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Basil<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A leaked cable recounts details of a meeting Charge d\u2019Affaires of the US embassy James R Moor has had with Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa on April 29, 2009.<\/p>\n<p>The Colombo Telegraph found the cable from WikiLeaks database. The cable classified as \u201cCONFIDENTIAL\u201d by the Charge d\u2019Affaires.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a discussion initially concerning other issues, Rajapaksa said that the US is blocking Sri Lanka\u2019s IMF request. Charge and Econ Chief underscored that the US has not threatened publicly or privately to block Sri Lanka\u2019s Stand \u2013 by Arrangement (SBA) request, and that Ambassador Blake had confirmed the same to Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal prior to Cabraal\u2019s departure for Fund\/Bank meeting in Washington\u201d Moor wrote to Washington.<\/p>\n<p>Moorr further wrote \u201cwhen asked by Chrage about GSL efforts to secure a USD 500 million loan from Libya, Rajapaksa noted that discussion continue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read the full cable for further details;<\/p>\n<pre>R 050545Z MAY 09\r\nFM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO\r\nTO SECSTATE WASHDC 9918\r\nC O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 000488\r\n\r\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 05\/04\/2019\r\nTAGS: KDEM PREL EFIN ECON PHUM CE\r\nSUBJECT: SRI LANKA: INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND LOAN\r\n\r\nREF: A. SECSTATE 41959\r\n     \u00b6B. MOORE-OWEN EMAILS 5\/01\/09\r\n     \u00b6C. COLOMBO 449\r\n     \u00b6D. COLOMBO 431\r\n     \u00b6E. COLOMBO 385\r\n     \u00b6F. COLOMBO 285\r\n     \u00b6G. COLOMBO 244\r\n\r\nClassified By: Charge d'Affaires James R Moore Reasons 1.4 (b)(d)\r\n\r\n\u00b61.  (C) Charge delivered ref a points to Senior Presidential\r\nAdvisor Basil Rajapaksa on April 29 when, in a discussion\r\ninitially concerning other issues, Rajapaksa said that the\r\nU.S. is blocking Sri Lanka's IMF request.  Charge and Econ\r\nChief underscored that the U.S. has not threatened publicly\r\nor privately to block Sri Lanka's Stand-by Arrangement (SBA)\r\nrequest, and that Ambassador Blake had confirmed the same to\r\nCentral Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal prior to Cabraal's\r\ndeparture for Fund\/Bank meetings in Washington.\r\n\r\n\u00b62. (C) Charge went on to ask the status of the IMF loan, and\r\nspecifically if the government had submitted its letter of\r\nintent (LOI) to the IMF.  Rajapaksa at first reported that\r\nthe government had already done so.  However, when questioned\r\nwhat day the LOI was sent, he recanted, noting that he\r\nthought it had been submitted.  Still later when Econ Chief\r\ninquired when the President (who also serves as the Finance\r\nMinister) had signed the LOI, he confirmed that the LOI has\r\nnot yet been submitted.\r\n\r\n\u00b63. (C) Charge again underscored that the U.S. believes the\r\nIMF program should be delayed until we can have more\r\nconfidence that authorities are committed to following\r\nthrough on key fiscal and exchange rate reforms, also noting\r\nthat we shared our concerns with key IMF members.  Rajapaksa\r\nsaid that the government has done all that the IMF has asked,\r\nhighlighting in particular the government's efforts to raise\r\nadditional revenue by raising the Nation Building Tax (NBL)\r\nfrom 1 percent to 3 percent and its promise not to interfere\r\nwith the exchange rate.  When asked by Charge about GSL\r\nefforts to secure a USD 500 million loan from Libya,\r\nRajapaksa noted that discussions continue.  (Note:  It was\r\nlater confirmed that CB Governor Cabraal was en route to\r\nLibya to finalize the deal.  End note.)  He also seemed not\r\nto be concerned as to whether or not the GSL eventually\r\nsecures an IMF SBA, stating that since the government had\r\nalready taken action, such an SBA would no longer be\r\nnecessary.\r\n\r\n\u00b64. (C) Charge also shared ref a points with Foreign Secretary\r\nPalitha Kohona on April 30.  Kohona did not provide any\r\nsubstantive response to Charge.\r\n\r\n\u00b65. (C) Comment:  Rajapaksa's lack of information about the\r\nstatus of the request could be attributed to his absence from\r\ncountry; he had just returned from overseas earlier in the\r\nday.  His lack of understanding of the immediate need for IMF\r\nassistance is in line with his limited grasp of\r\nmacroeconomics and the government's focus on the situation in\r\nthe north.  However, Rajapaksa's inability to point to any\r\nconcrete expenditure reductions leaves post with concerns\r\nthat the government may not be ready and willing to move\r\nforward with its request to IMF, despite assurances from the\r\nCentral Bank that the SBA request is on track.  Post had\r\nplanned to reiterate points with Cabraal following his return\r\nto country; however, we will now maintain silence until\r\nfurther guidance on this issue, per ref b.\r\n\r\nMOORE<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,27],"tags":[1273,1274,1161,1275,1276,1154,1172],"class_list":["post-800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wikileaks","tag-basil-rajapaksa-in-wikileaks","tag-economic-affaires","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-imf","tag-james-r-moore","tag-robert-o-blake","tag-us-embassy-cables"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>WikiLeaks: We Have Done All That The IMF Asked \u2013 Basil To US - 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