The EPF has over 13 million contributing and non contributing members while ETF has 2.3 million accounts. The Government agencies have custody of these funds and therefore play only a fiduciary role, managing the funds in the best interest of the members including investment in Treasury Bills and shares.”
l by Dr Vickramabahu Karunaratne
(08 July, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Last week Ranil blamed the Government for not giving the proper answers to questions he raised in Parliament on all the EPF and ETF share purchases by the Central Bank, from January 2010 to the end of April this year. On June 21 he made a statement in Parliament requesting the Government to inform the House of the present position of the investments made by the EPF and the ETF certified by the Secretary of the Finance Ministry as the chief accounting officer of the two funds, and to provide this information in a particular format he had given. The Government tabled the Equity Investment Portfolio of the EPF and ETF and the Summary of the Investments of the ETF. Ranil said “It is not the reply to my question and has avoided answering me. It is not certified and does not give the date of purchase, the purchase price and the quantities. In fact, it refers to purchases which are outside the time frame such as Blue Diamonds, Chemanex, Maskeliya Plantations etc.,.” In his statement on June 21 Ranil said “The monies of the EPF and ETF belong to the members. The EPF has over 13 million contributing and non contributing members while ETF has 2.3 million accounts. The Government agencies have custody of these funds and therefore play only a fiduciary role, managing the funds in the best interest of the members including investment in Treasury Bills and shares.”
In the last period, the opposition alleged fraud and market manipulations in share transactions. These include a push and dump strategy in which speculators pushed up the value of shares and then dumped them on these two Funds resulting in a loss for the Funds and a gain for a ring of speculators. Opposition further stated that the losses in respect of these five companies are alleged to be in the range of over Rs. 4 billion. This has disturbed workers and trade unions as well as employers who contributed on behalf of their employees. In turn it has also impacted the financial market. Linus Jayathilaka, President- United Federation of Labour, recently called a meeting of all affected trade unions to discuss a strategy to face this plunder of workers savings. In the mean time the VV, the protest of the Opposition, agreed to support the action programme formulated by a committee that includes MP Joseph Michel Perera, Linus Jayathilaka, Anton Marcus, Brito and MP Dr Jayalath Jayewardene. This action programme will include legal action and mass campaign, both local and international.
Economic survival
While all these rackets are carried out by the Mahinda regime for economic survival, the Lankan economy is affected by the global crisis. It is claimed that Lanka is most at risk from the European debt crisis, because of the high external funding needs and weak balance sheet. With the Commonwealth summit of 2013 and other international commitments, the regime’s need for funds will increase dramatically. These uncertainties has prompted the government to seek another IMF bail-out even before the last one is complete. Mahinda has said that he is borrowing money not to support his personal needs but to support the national development programme. Yes, that is true; no body will give money to enhance consumption whether it is of rulers or the ruled. But what is this development? It is a development programme based on illusions of the ruling elite. It does not improve the production activities or the life conditions of the masses including that of the local bourgeoisie. Latter groups are forced to bear the repayments, while the ruling elite continue to rob and waste resources through these lunatic projects. This road is leading us to a tragic crisis. IMF bailouts are infinitely worse than the crisis we are in. The global management Trinity - IMF/WB/ WTO use the method of throttling the patient to cure economic-ills. The modern Trinity is like those ancient physicians who regarded bleeding patients as a panacea for all ills. And it is not the rulers who will be bled dead-white and stone-dry, but ordinary Lankans.
Import taxes of several essential goods have already increased. Education and Health Care are gradually pushed out of state welfare. As the regime imposes more and more economic burdens on the masses, violence and malpractices will become essential to win elections and to maintain stability. For this purpose Armed Forces are being strengthened and retrained. In addition to state terror Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism is being promoted, in order to provide ideological mobilization of assault groups. Clearly Mahinda regime will depart the political-scene some day in the near future, willingly or unwillingly. We must be prepared for sharp turns and sudden changes.
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