Finance Minister: Govt prepares recovery plan

Storm costs nation US$ 2 b

The Government is now assessing the economic damage arising from last week’s storm disaster and steps are being taken to ensure that citizens and enterprises incurring losses will be facilitated in their recovery, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake told the Sunday Observer last night.

He said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had asked for a full assessment of the cost of the disaster and the action needed for recovery so that the economy could overcome the shock of the disaster.

In addition to the human toll, the country is estimated to have suffered a massive cost amounting to nearly US$ 2 billion (nearly Rs. 300 billion) from last week’s storm disaster, the Finance Minister said. This has been the country’s worst disaster since the tsunami, he said.

While roads, telecommunications, irrigation systems, power supply lines and other infrastructure have suffered damage, the country’s agriculture in terms of both cash crops and food production has also suffered some impact, the Finance Minister said.

Over 600,000 people have been displaced who need support for recovery while about 125,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed, needing support for re-building, he said.

The Minister said insurance companies now face huge claim bills arising from storm damage and that the Government would take all steps to ensure that the insurance process goes through smoothly to enable swift recovery.

“Fortunately, the government had decided to obtain re-insurance of up to Rs. 10 billion for this type of contingency and this will be of help in our recovery effort. Since the tourism sector suffered relatively little from this storm, this will also be of help in our recovery,” he said.

Meanwhile, industry sources disclosed that the flooding in the greater Colombo metro area had caused damaged to warehousing complexes resulting in losses to many companies through damage to stored goods.