Sri Lanka debt restructuring plan to parliament this weekend

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the country's debt restructuring program will be presented to Cabinet on Wednesday (28), and will be debated in Parliament during the weekend.

He made these comments while speaking to France24 during his visit to France.

"Discussions are going on with the different groups. We have used our agreement with Lazard to represent us. The debt restructuring program will be presented to the Cabinet on Wednesday, and over the weekend they will finalize it. It will go to parliament on Friday, before the Public Finance Committee, and on Saturday and Sunday it will be debated in Parliament, and approved by the Parliament. Thereafter, we can start the rest of the negotiations with our creditors," explained President Wickremesinghe.

He said that Sri Lanka is looking at an extension of the repayment period and at some form of reduction in the amount due. 

"Those are being discussed now, hopefully by Sunday or Monday, the final document will be available to us," he added.

Sri Lankan authorities have declared a five-day closure of financial markets from Thursday ahead of move to restructure the government's domestic debt amounting to more than $51 billion.

Central bank governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said authorities had ordered that Friday will be a holiday, on top of existing religious holidays on Thursday and Monday and the weekend.

He told local television networks that it would be unhealthy for markets to remain open while the debt restructuring was being discussed in parliament.

Weerasinghe said deposits of individuals would not be affected, but the government plan is to restructure treasury bills and bonds held by commercial banks and pension funds.