COLOMBO (AFP) – The party of a Marxist leader on track to win Sri Lanka’s presidential vote vowed on Sunday not to scrap the country’s unpopular USD2.9 billion IMF bailout agreement, but instead renegotiate it.
Presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayaka and his People’s Liberation Front will “not tear up” the IMF deal, party politburo member Bimal Ratnayake told AFP. “Our plan is to engage with the IMF and introduce certain amendments,” Ratnayake said.
“We will not tear up the IMF programme. It is a binding document, but there is a provision to renegotiate.”
He said Dissanayaka had pledged to reduce income taxes that were doubled by President Ranil Wickremesinghe and slash sales taxes on food and medicines. “We think we can get those reductions into the programme and continue with the four-year bailout programme.”
Dissanayaka’s rivals had raised fears that his Marxist party would scrap the IMF programme and push the country back into an economic crisis similar to the chaos of 2022. A foreign exchange crisis led to shortages of essentials sparking street protests which eventually forced then leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee and resign.
