{"id":132525,"date":"2023-02-26T14:45:35","date_gmt":"2023-02-26T21:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=132525"},"modified":"2023-02-26T14:45:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-26T21:45:35","slug":"we-cant-afford-ad-hoc-payments-we-need-reserves-if-imf-deal-doesnt-come-through-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/02\/26\/we-cant-afford-ad-hoc-payments-we-need-reserves-if-imf-deal-doesnt-come-through-president\/","title":{"rendered":"We can\u2019t afford ad hoc payments, we need reserves if IMF deal doesn\u2019t come through \u2013 President"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>President Ranil Wickremesinghe has stated that the country\u2019s economy cannot afford the release of funds on an ad hoc basis, owing to its ongoing economic crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Taking to Twitter, the Head of State said We are facing an economic crisis, and we need to plan our spending carefully. Budgets are made for the whole year, so we can\u2019t release funds on an ad hoc basis. We have to keep a reserve in case the IMF funds for which we are negotiating aren\u2019t received in March\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"We can\u2019t afford ad hoc payments, we need reserves if IMF deal doesn\u2019t come through \u2013 President\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GZK0nrrRaN0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking on current controversies surrounding the 2023 Local Government (LG) election, Wickremesinghe stated that they are yet to receive proper clarity on the costs incurred for the polls, as the estimated amounts and those requested do not tally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EC estimated it at Rs. 10B but requested 6B. The police have requested higher than the estimates\u201d, he said, adding that the Finance Ministry has been instructed to study these discrepancies and submit an accurate budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, the Prime Minister has also been instructed to take the necessary measures to appoint a&nbsp; Select Committee Inquiry into who is responsible for \u2018destroying the economy\u2019 by the third week of March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The economy is my top priority. We will not have a country if the economy does not develop\u201d, the President emphasised, adding that the constitution may be protected only if the country is protected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana President Ranil Wickremesinghe has stated that the country\u2019s economy cannot afford the release of funds on an ad hoc basis, owing to its ongoing economic crisis. Taking to Twitter, the Head of State said We are facing an economic crisis, and we need to plan our spending carefully. Budgets are made for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-imf-bailout-package"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}