13^th Amendment (PCs) and it's Financial & Economic

Constraints on the Economy of Sri Lanka

By Engr. Kanthar Balanathan

DipEE (UK), GradCert (RelEng-Monash), DipBus&Adm (Finance-Massey), C.Eng., MIEE, 

Former Director of Power Engineering Solutions Pty Ltd, Consulting Electrical Engineers

 

Late Hon Rajiv Gandhi walked into Sri Lanka and introduced the Provincial Council proposal and wanted it implemented because all the terrorist groups were domiciled in India in the various states and were polluting and infecting the populace by way of social and political culture draining the economy of India. It was a contemplation of getting rid of the terrorist groups from India to prevent sullying their culture as India is a great technologically developing continent in Asia. There were two reasons for his actions. (i) It was an embarrassment for a big continent of India to tolerate terrorists in their backyard while India itself had a couple of states fighting for separatism, (a) Assam, (b) Nagaland, (ii) The terrorist groups were a liability to India. Rajiv Gandhi was the Chairman of NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) and he handed over the chairman position to Robert Mugabi in October 1986 in Harare. It may have been an embarrassment for the PM among the NAM groups to tolerate separatist groups in India.

Indira Gandhi made the mistake of tolerating the groups along with MGR, which was because of Srimavo becoming an ally of China. RG took the correct path to remove the liability.

However, Prabakaran was foolish enough not to accept it and wanted to challenge the late PM, Gandhi. End of story. However, with no background thoughts, LTTE wanted to fight the Indian and Sri Lankan armies. Even if Prabakaran would have accepted the agreement, he would have got the first bullet in his head.

Now the 13^th amendment is been argued without any credible thoughts about the country’s economy. The writer gives a couple of excerpts from the Central Bank data. Bonds, Bills, and Notes are being sold for money for reasons of, maybe, payments of salaries, local government elections, and with intentions of indirect privatisations of industries in SL. E.g. How did Puttalam Cement Works become a private company?

Excerpts from CB Data:

·       Rs. 120,000 million Treasury bills are to be issued through an auction on 01st February 2023

·       DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA ISSUE OF RS 70,000 MILLION TREASURY BONDS January 30

·       Rs. 120,000 million Treasury bills are to be issued through an auction on 25th January 2023

·       Rs. 95,000 million Treasury bills are to be issued through an auction on 18th January 2023

Bonds are sold for development works and the country should be in an unambiguous crystal-clear position to pay back the bond money.

The country is suffering from NO Eggs, no fuel, no medicine etc.

While the country is economically constrained and its people are suffering, can the government think of ministerial, and Chief Minster positions with perks to those who claim that they should be considered for political hierarchy positions via PCs?

IT WILL BE A JOKE FOR THE GOSL TO CONSIDER GIVING POSITIONS TO JOKERS.

India should not consider that it is a drawback and insult for India if the 13^th amendment is not implemented. If it is implemented, it will be a burden for India as well as SL.

Therefore, from an economic and financial perspective and to maintain an economically secure country SL shall revoke the 13^th amendment. India should welcome this act and not regret it.