Sri Lanka: Minister Basil to leave for United States Tomorrow?

by Our Political Affairs Editor

Reliable sources say that Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa is scheduled to leave for the United States tomorrow. Although the minister had planned to leave for the United States after the April New Year holidays, he would leave the island a few days earlier for a number of personal reasons, sources added. 

However, the main purpose of the visit is to meet with officials of the International Monetary Fund to assist to overcome the current economic recession in the island nation. 

Meanwhile, the political correspondent of the Sunday Times published in Colombo has been reported that the Minister of Finance was working hard for the past few days to have a Sinhala translation of the recently issued IMF report on Sri Lanka. 

“Though highly unusual, President Rajapaksa has been devoting almost all his time finding foreign exchange to pay for urgent procurements. That showed that he had to carry the burden of even Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa. In the recent past, the latter has been seeking Sinhala translations of English documents related to the impending dialogue with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). For the translators, some of the banking jargons have not been that easy and are telephoning different quarters to ascertain Sinhala names,” the newspaper has revealed. 

Meanwhile, although no official action has been taken yet, reliable sources say that the ruling alliance and opposition MPs are planning to bring a no-confidence motion against the Finance Minister in the near future.