Samagi Jana Balavegaya M.P Eran Wickramaratne recently unveiled the following eleven-point blueprint for the country’s economic development under a future SJB government. Eran Wickramaratne, who is a member of the SJB’s Centre for Economic Policy, outlined his project titled, ‘The Correct Direction of the Economy’ at a forum attended by the local business community, at the Hilton Hotel on February 14.

Following is a transcript of Eran Wickramaratne’s address:

One of the things we will do immediately is making the CBSL independent

We know what happened with printing of money and inflation and the consequences resulting from them.

Monetary Policy of the CBSL will be independent from the Fiscal Policy of Treasury.

The law was drawn in 2019. The then Secretary to Treasury Dr .R.H.S Samaratunge, CBSL Governor Dr. Indrajith Cooomaraswamy, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinge, Minister of Finance at that time Mangala Samaraweera and myself as the State Minister of Finance and other officials were all involved in it. I am calling upon the present government to bring in this piece of legislation even before we come to office, otherwise it will be the first legislation we will enact.

Bribery and corruption

If we are going to build this country, we must focus on some special issues. Bribery and corruption must be stopped.

Politicians like us, high-level officials, must publicize our assets and liabilities. I beg you, you don’t have to wait for the law to come in. As a private member, I have submitted a bill to parliament regarding disclosure of assets and liabilities, and I am asking the government to make that bill law.

Special attention will be focused on anti-corruption measures, as they are a panacea for all ills in governance. Country cannot be changed only by law but by the example of leaders.

We urge the govt. to bring in the law which has already been submitted as a private member’s bill to enable the publicising of assets and liability declarations of politicians and those of senior officials.

There is no need to wait for the draft, I request President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

There is no need for a law to exist; make your declaration of assets and liabilities public.

There are two other former Presidents in parliament, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena, and I request them also to make their assets declarations public. This is an exemplary act that could be gone through forthwith by rulers. Countries don’t change only by law-making, on the contrary, countries change by the examples of leaders.

Therefore, I called upon the present and former Presidents who are sitting in parliament to go public with their Asset Declarations which will compel MPs, such as myself and high officials in this country, to be accountable to the public.

Secondly: Make CIABOC independent. Now it is not independent. When a theft is reported, people are tracked down and police officers are appointed by the government to investigate it. As soon as the government changes, those officials are transferred out of it. It completely disrupts the investigations. This is the type of anti-corruption system this country has. So the law to make the Commission independent is a must.

The third point is: The Star Program. The Stolen Assets Recovery Program, a program of the United Nations. We will bring a law to implement this program. According to that law, even if such stolen resources are hidden in Sri Lanka or in a foreign country, they could be traced and brought back to the country.

The fourth point related to bribery corruption is: For example, today a person could be a minister, tomorrow he may get involved in stealing. Today the Attorney General’s Department could be his counsel, tomorrow the Attorney General could file a case against him. We need to get rid of this system. A conflict of interest is evident here. That is why we demand that there should be an independent prosecutor’s office in this country.

If we put an end to bribery and corruption, others will be fixed automatically. I don’t have to tell you as businessmen, this is an environment where bribes have to be paid from the bottom to top. Therefore, to move our country forward, we must change it and we will change it. These are some measure we intend to do to fight corruption.

The other thing we intend to do is to create;

A Unified Revenue Collection Authority

This is very important. Businessmen do pay taxes. 75 per cent or more of Sri Lanka’s revenue comes from three main institutions, namely, Inland Revenue Dept, Sri Lanka Customs Dept and the Excise Dept, I believe none of you would have accused me or Mangala Samaraweera of stealing a rupee or a dollar, even while we were in office. But the level of corruption in those departments did not go down. Therefore, we can’t rely on individuals, we have to initiate systemic changes. That is why we are going to put in place a Unified Revenue Collection Authority.

As businessmen when you import goods you go to your bank and open an LC and you have to get it cleared. You go to the Customs, I don’t need to tell the rest of the story. Customs only become the clearing hub. Excise and Inland Revenue similarly. You can use technology and these are not new ideas, other countries have done these things. Assessment is done in one place; payment is made centrally; interactions with officials become minimal. Instructions go to the Customs and the payment is centrally made and the goods can be cleared from the Customs.

To be Continued