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Leading News from Sri Lanka ::
Nov 08, Colombo: Sri Lanka Opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe today said that the announcement made by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa over the increasing of salaries of government workers will be another election artifice.
Speaking at a special press briefing held in Colombo this afternoon Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe described the government's decision to increase the salaries as a dream that will never be realized.
According to the Opposition Leader the salaries of government workers will never be raised by the government.
He said the government does not have sufficient funds to do so, but has promised to increase salaries to tighten their voter turnout.
"Government has agreed the International Monetary Fund to reduce its expenses as a condition for its huge loan granted to Sri Lanka," Wickremasinghe added.
Meanwhile the government has also agreed to increase its taxes from next year as another condition applied by the IMF, Opposition Leader pointed out.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has made public the Letter of Intent (LOI) that it submitted to the IMF to secure the loan facility.
The LOI states that the government is committed to increasing tax revenue by at least 2 percent of GDP by 2011 with measures to broaden the revenue base, significantly reduce tax exemptions, and further improve tax enforcement.
Executive Board of the IMF released the US$329.4 million second installment of theUS$ 2.5 billion Stand-by Arrangement increasing the Forex reserves of the country over US$ 5 billion.
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