SJB: Collapse of SMEs due to economic mismanagement and not Covid pandemic

The collapse of Small and Medium Enterprises in Sri Lanka had been caused by economic mismanagement rather than the Covid-19 pandemic

Addressing the media at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in Colombo yesterday, SJB MP Kabir Hashim said that some government ministers had cited the COVID pandemic as the reason for the collapse of SMEs in Sri Lanka.

“This is a lie. World economic experts predicted that the pandemic will have a negative impact on SMEs. Then the IMF offered assistance to SMEs in 86 countries around the world. We, too, could have availed of that assistance. The then Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa was against obtaining the IMF help. If we had obtained the IMF assistance then, our SMEs would not have faced this crisis today,” Hashim said.

He said that the Department of Census and Statistics has reported that more than 20 percent of SMEs suffered closures between 2020 and 2023. “As at the end of 2018, there were 1.3 million SMEs in Sri Lanka and 20 percent of them ended their existence, meaning that we have lost more than 260,000 SMEs. The government cannot hide behind lies. We lost those SMEs because of the government’s economic mismanagement,” the MP said.

Hashim said that many countries including our neighbours such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh obtained IMF assistance rejected by Basil Rajapaksa. “We continuously called on the government to get IMF assistance. When we raised this issue in Parliament, Ajith Nivard Cabraal said that there was no need to beg from the IMF because Lanka was about to receive $ 10 billion. They misled Parliament and lied to people. Even after this crisis, they continue to lie. This government should take the responsibility for the collapse of SMEs,” Hashim said.