Peoples Bank to overpower the Monetary Board? - Wasantha Samarasinghe

Colombo (News 1st) - President of All Ceylon Bank Employees' Union Wasantha Samarasinghe spoke about a proposed bill during a media briefing today (August 20). "They have already presented the bill to amend the People Bank Act no 29 of 1961" the MP continued noting that the purpose of this bill is to take away the security measures and pave the way to sell the bank. He stated that the People's Bank is doing this to increase the capital up to Rs 50 billion. He further noted that the ownership of shares should be by the state and the cooperatives. He further mentioned that the initial purpose of this act is to amend the clause that the ownership of capital for the state and for cooperatives to be increased from Rs 1 billion to Rs 50 billion by issuing debentures adding that the Central Bank has guidelines. He highlighted that the Monetary Board had the authority in this regard and that the Peoples Bank is taking over the power of the Monetary Board. Therefore, he continued that the Bank itself has the power to issue shares to the share market and when that happens Peoples Bank will come under Banks, Financial institutions, international financial institutions, and Private Financial institutions. He stated that this will be taken up on the 22nd in parliament and a vote will take place on the 5th where it would be approved in parliament. "We urge the public representatives to not vote for this", he added.