Sept. 8 discussion on CIFL repayments
The long-awaited arrest of Deepthi Perera, former chairman of the failed Central Finance and Investment Ltd (CIFL) last month has sparked renewed activity in the search for a durable repayment scheme for 4,000 + depositors.
Perera, nabbed at Sri Lanka’s international airport on August 10 with a bogus passport, is to be presented by prison authorities to the Central Bank (CB) on Tuesday, September 8 at 10 am to discuss a settlement plan. Also attending the meeting – along with senior CB officials – is the CIFL Depositors Association (CIFLDA).
These directives were given by Colombo Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya when the case against Perera was taken up on Thursday. The magistrate also refused an application by accused’s counsel Navin Marapana for bail after lawyers for the CIFLDA and the CB objected. Further hearing was put off for September 15 at which a settlement plan based on the September 8th meeting is expected to be submitted.
CIFLDA President K.W. Gunawardena told the Business Times that their association is preparing a study on all the crashed financial companies and its liabilities. He accused the authorities of adopting various delaying tactics while a large number of depositors who are senior citizens are dying due to their inability to meet their medical expenditure which was earlier met by the income from the deposit interest.