SDAs attract just $86.9m
View(s):Only US$ 86.9 million has been brought into the country so far through the Special Deposit Accounts (SDAs) announced in late April, Central Bank (CB) data showed.
At the CB’s Monetary Policy Review on Thursday, officials responding to a question by the Business Times noted that the ‘trend’ in garnering these accounts weren’t ‘that promising’.
This came on the back of the CB dismissing concerns over potential money laundering activities linked to the recently introduced SDA while stressing that the exemptions granted from procedural requirements are provided under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Act (FEA).
The concerns were raised after Joint Cabinet spokesman and Minister Bandula Gunawardana in late April announced that Sri Lankans and non-nationals could deposit any amount of foreign currencies in the SDA free of foreign exchange regulations in any licenced commercial bank of the country. It was understood to be a no-questions-asked deposit account designed to attract diaspora funds into the country, and to entice foreign direct investment. Mr. Gunawardena at a media briefing in April said that applicants through the SDA can bring ‘black cash’.