Govt. appeals to overseas Sri Lankans for help
View(s):The Government has appealed to overseas and locally-based Sri Lankans with foreign currency assets to invest their money in Sri Lankan banks and finance companies – in a ‘no questions asked’ scheme – to help the country stave off an impending foreign currency crisis.
The Central Bank appeal made with the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers, invited Sri Lankans living abroad and here with foreign currency savings to invest during a period of three months starting from April 2. “Your foreign currency deposits in the Sri Lankan banking system at this difficult stage will be of immense help to authorities to tide over the present crisis,” it said in a statement.
“We also guarantee the future convertibility of these deposits into foreign currency whenever you desire to do so. All your foreign remittances will be exempted from exchange control regulations and protected under banking secrecy provisions,” the statement said, which analysts interpreted to mean that the source of the funds (even if its black money) will not be questioned. It said that such remittances would go a long way to promote people’s welfare during the current period of the still spreading COVID-19, and economic revival in the immediate aftermath.
As of March 18, there have been net capital outflows of around US$200 million (0.25 percent of GDP) since mid-February, mostly from the domestic treasury securities market, official data showed. According to the January data, the country has foreign reserves ($7.5 billion) to service 4.5 months of imports.