Visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials yesterday began discussions with Sri Lankan authorities at the Finance Ministry regarding the short-term performance and progress to be achieved in the future in relation to obtaining IMF Extended Fund Facility.
The representatives will stay in the country until May 23 and discuss the future performance and progress of the IMF agreements.
Finance State Minister Shehan Semasinghe said the IMF team will hold rounds of discussion with the Finance Ministry and Central Bank officials during their stay in Colombo.
“They will discuss about the progress we made so far and specially our preparation for the review which is scheduled to take place later this year. They are visiting Sri Lanka as part of regular consultations ahead of the first review meeting in September,” he said.
He said that the IMF mission will apprise the progress, made by the government at the end of the mission. They will apprise us our true position with regard to our performance and the area that needs more focus”, he said.
A senior Finance Ministry official stated that the two groups will hold talks regarding the implementation of the short-term agreements made in order to more successfully carry forward the reforms made by the government in a very critical and challenging environment.
Discussions will be held on the continued progress of economic reforms including maintaining the price formula system introduced to sell electricity, fuel, based on market values, strengthening the tax reforms made to increase government revenue and the obstacles that arise.
The economic reforms and structural measures carried out in this country are aimed to be carried out in three stages. The official said that the discussions will mainly focus on the activities to be carried out in the June and July, the goals to be achieved by September and the performance progress to be achieved by December.