In his address to Parliament, Wickremesinghe said that he has urged International Monetary Fund The chief asked Kristalina Georgieva to send a team to Colombo “as soon as possible” to finalize an employee-level agreement as his cash-starved government would pay $6 to keep the country afloat for the next six months. Trying to find Billion.
Speaking in the context of the planned strike by engineers of the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Wickremesinghe said, “Please don’t cause a blackout, you can hold placards and go on strike.”
“If you do this, don’t ask me to ask India for help. No country is giving us money for fuel and coal. India is giving it. Our Indian credit line is nearing its end now. We are talking about increasing it.”
Prime Minister further said that India cannot provide assistance Sri Lanka, “Some people in India are asking why they should give us help. “They ask us to help ourselves first before helping us,” Wickremesinghe said.
A union of the power sector in Sri Lanka said on Wednesday it would go on an indefinite strike from midnight to protest against a new government law that could potentially lead to power outages.
About 900 of the 1,100 engineers at Sri Lanka’s leading power company Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) will not be on duty on Thursday and those already working on power plants, transmission and distribution facilities will leave at midnight . Engineers Union said.
The union is opposing government plans to amend laws governing the country’s power sector, including lifting restrictions on competitive bidding for renewable energy projects.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has sought a loan of $55 million from India for the purchase of urea.
India has provided financial assistance of $3.5 billion in the form of loans and buyers’ loans for food, medicine and fuel.
Sri Lanka is on the verge of bankruptcy and grappling with acute shortages of essentials ranging from food, fuel, medicines and cooking gas to toilet paper and match sticks. For the past few months, people have to stand in long queues to buy limited stocks.
(with agency input)