With reference to the Editorial ‘Some order in chaos’ (May 25), if there is one leader who has some chance of pulling out his island nation from its worst crisis, then it is Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Setting his economic priority right would go a long way in bringing stability into the country. It would only make sense for Sri Lankan people to rally behind him rather than being rigid on President Gotabaya’s exit.
Though Sri Lankan people have realised that one of the reasons for their current plight is Chinese debt but it is late in the day now. India would want stability to return to the island nation. And we played our part as an ally by extending financial help and EXIM and SBI have given loans to Sri Lanka. It has also sought help from IMF, but it would need more than that. But it is good that Wickremesinghe has set his priorities right. Sri Lankans need to be patient with him.
Bal Govind
Noida
Apropos the Editorial 'Some order in chaos' (May 25), after much political tribulations, Ranil Wickremesinghe has taken over the mantle to set things in order, or even rebuild everything from scratch.
A lot of faith and hope are pinned on the five time PM Ranil who needs to first put the country's economy on track. Sri Lankan political parties must set aside their differences and support the new interim PM to set right the damage done by his predecessor.
Besides giving top priority to revive the economy, Ranil needs to focus on the country's food security easing imports of fertilisers and pesticides to help farmers raise farm output.
Ranil also needs to revive ties with India on the trade front and the related financial aid to bring the economy back on track.
RV Baskaran
Chennai
DGFT must act swiftly
Apropos ‘To beat ban, 60% of LCs for wheat exports back-dated’ (May 25) is yet another case of how the banks collude with their customers, which cannot be without a quid pro quo.
There is a clear difference between the Date of application (for a LC) and date of opening and transmission, mostly through SWIFT, an internationally accepted tool, in which date cannot be manipulated.
DGFT must act swiftly on this new method of fraud and go a step further to investigate if at all the LCs opened are genuine.
Rajiv Magal
Halekere Village (Karnataka)
Govt’s resources management
This refers to the report ‘PSBs may step up dividend to make up for RBI’s lower transfer’ (May 25).
Traditionally, central government budget exercise has depended on ‘appropriation exercise’ post-Budget announcement. Since the last decade, government investments in government owned organisations and PSUs have started earning profits and paying dividends to the Union government.
Of late, there is a temptation to “pre-harvest” income from organisations like RBI, PSBs and LIC to make up for budget deficits.
This approach results in depletion of reserves and affects the strength of the balance sheets of the concerned organisations.
For example, RBI’s reserves have come down from 11 per cent to 5.5 during the last 12 years.
Perhaps, a comprehensive review of overall budgetary exercise with focus on sources and uses of funds may help to restore trust in governance.
MG Warrier
Mumbai
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