Sri Lanka’s economy now on a correct path towards speedy recovery: Finance Minister
Sri Lanka’s economy is now on a correct path towards speedy recovery as a result of pragmatic monetary measures including cost cutting and eliminating corruption, under the new regime, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake revealed.
The country has been able to raise nearly US $1billion through international sovereign bonds last Friday in the first international bond issue of the new government, he said adding that this clearly indicates the positive international response on Sri Lanka.
Addressing The Finance Company’s (TFC) 75th anniversary in Colombo, Minister Karunanayake noted that TFC and Sri Lankan economy are on the verge of recovery from misdeeds of the previous regime. The Government’s revenue is in the region of Rs. 1538 billion and it has to pay 92 per cent of the revenue for debt servicing, he disclosed.
The payment for debt servicing has reached a staggering amount of Rs. 1398 billion, he added. With the collapse of Golden Key Credit Card Company, like all other companies of the Ceylinco Group, TFC also had to face a difficult task of re-building the public confidence and maintain its deposit base, he said.
The Central Bank had also injected Rs. 6 billion to help The Finance by way of a soft loan, he revealed. TFC has been able to weather the storm and today it has once again gained customer confidence and the deposit base is fast increasing at present, Minister Karunanayake said.
The Finance Chairman, Dr. S. H. A. M. Abeyratne said the company has been turned round to become a profit making venture once again with its lending portfolio and deposit base are also increasing.Aruna Lekamge, Managing Director of the company said “After taking over the company, within one year we have been able to reduce the revenue losses by half while all the financial indicators are improving steadily. As such, we are now on the way to reach the break-even point in terms of revenue and in another one to two years we hope to make a profit, with a positive impact on our balance sheets.”
TFC holds one of the largest fixed deposit bases of over Rs.20.8 billion and a large customer base spanning three generations and it has a network of 60 branches spread island- wide, Ramesh Abeywickrema, Executive Director of the company told Business Times on the sidelines of the 75th anniversary Celebrations.
Over 36 percent of the stake of TFC is owned by state banks and other leading institutions in Sri Lanka and it has the largest number of land blocks owned by a single company with more than 800,000 customers, he added. TFC entered the landscape in 1940 and revolutionised the financial industry by bringing ‘the financial freedom’ to the common masses and thus strengthening and elevating their lifestyles.