COLOMBO, May 5 (NNN-XINHUA) – The Sri Lankan government will announce the country’s debt restructuring strategy within this month, State Minister of Finance, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, said yesterday.
Siyambalapitiya said that, the government will reduce taxes and reduce the debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio, in the next five years, as the economy stabilises.
Tax revenue targets will be met, upon further expansion of the tax base in the coming years, the state minister said.
Siyambalapitiya said that, the current debt-to-GDP ratio is 128 percent and that this will be reduced to 95 percent in the next few years.
However, there are more difficult targets to achieve, and the government will have to take more unpopular decisions in the coming years, he said.
Sri Lanka announced a suspension of foreign debt repayments in Apr, 2022, when it was hit by its worst financial crisis since independence.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Mar this year, approved a 48-month extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility of about three billion U.S. dollars, to support Sri Lanka’s economic policies and reforms.– NNN-XINHUA
