INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Rajapaksa today (17) witnessed the signing of the agreement pertaining to the Short-Term Concessional Loan facility of USD 1 billion
extended by the Government of India to the Government of Sri Lanka through the State Bank of India.The USD 1 billion loan facility, which
visit to New Delhi in December last year, was extended to the Government of Sri Lanka for procurement of food, medicines and other essential
items.The signing ceremony was held at the Ministry of Finance in New Delhi this afternoon in the presence of Finance Minister Basil
Rajapaksa, the External Affairs Minister of India Dr
Jaishankar and the Indian Finance Minister Smt
this occasion.Secretary to the Ministry of Finance S
Attygalle signed the agreement on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka, with Deputy General Manager Shri Pushkar Jha signing on behalf of
the State Bank of India.Prior to the signing ceremony, Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa was received jointly by the Finance and External
Affairs Ministers of India for bilateral talks at the Finance Ministry in the North Block.During the bilateral talks, the two sides agreed
economic challenges.With this objective, the three Ministers agreed to stay in regular contact and a coordinating mechanism consisting of
senior officials from the two countries was set up to maintain a regular dialogue.Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa was accompanied to this
the past two years to about $2.31 billion, leaving it struggling to pay for imports.The country will work with the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) to find a way out of the crisis, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said on Wednesday.After meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
discuss the USD 1 billion loan that the Indian government agreed to provide, as well as the road map for how the funds will be
utilised.India has already provided a loan of USD 500 million for fuel purchases and a USD 400 million currency swap under the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) facility
In addition to that, the government of India has provided a $500 million loan deferment for settlement to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), in
a move sought to help the island nation witnessing an exceptional economic crisis.During his previous visit to New Delhi last year,
Rajapaksa negotiated $1 billion in financial assistance from the Indian government
The financial aid has not been released yet while his meeting with Indian Finance Minister Sitharaman is largely likely to finalise the $ 1
USD 2.415 billion to the island nation (of which $1 billion is yet to be released) to help overcome dire financial constraints caused by
external debt payments and a lack of US dollars in the country for business.--With Agencies Inputs
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://adaderana.lk
