Addressing a news conference yesterday (8)  at Opposition leader’s office at Cambridge place, Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said, the Govt.  obtained the IMF loan in its desperation unmindful of the conditions attaching to it. It is a characteristic of the Rajapakse Govt., policies:

promise now forget the promises  thereafter ; and borrow first  and look for a secret escape route from the lender .The Govt.’s attitude was clearly illustrated on the IMF loan. It took as maximum as possible from the IMF promising to fulfill all the conditions imposed by the IMF regardless of the adverse repercussions it can have on the economy . But now, as it is unable to fulfill those conditions without burdening the people , and as elections are round the corner , it replaced the budget with a vote on account in order not to account to the IMF at least temporarily , and not to displease the voters by the burdens by presenting the budget .

Under the terms and conditions the Govt. has agreed to comply with in respect of the IMF loan, the Govt. has to inevitably introduce more cuts in welfare benefits, deny salary increases to public servants and impose more taxation and  tariff increases. The Govt. has only this Hobson’s choice. Though it has promised to cut down expenditure to the IMF , can it , going by the Govt.’s record , he asked .

The other condition is increase state revenue . It is an impossibility without extorting from the people via taxes , COL escalation ,tariff hikes and price hikes , he pinpointed.