BY AJITH SIRIWARDANA AND YOHAN PERERA Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Parliament, Nov.24 (Daily Mirror) Revealing that a certain private institution had obtained a loan amounting to Rs. 7 billion from the Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank using the same security, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa today urged the government to disclose the names of the first ten borrowers of the two State banks who had defaulted massive amounts of loans.

Raising a question under Standing Order 27(2), he said people doubted whether the two State banks were not recovering the loans granted to individuals and institutions that had obtained loans in massive amounts.

“The main income of a bank is the interest charged on loans. The bank will run into a liquidity crisis if the loans given to large-scale borrowers are not recovered,” he said.

The Opposition Leader urged the government to disclose the names of the first ten individuals or institutions that had obtained loans of massive amounts from the two State banks and defaulted them, the amount of the loans they had obtained and whether a decision had been taken to waive off their loans or interests.

He said powerful individuals, large-scale industrialists and companies were treated differently while the property of the micro, small and medium scale businessmen were being auctioned under Parate law for defaulting loans.