NCM against Finance Minister to be taken up

By Uditha Kumarasinghe

A No Confidence Motion (NCM) against Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake signed by 37 Joint Opposition MPs on the grounds of gross mismanagement of the economy will be taken up for debate in Parliament on June 8 from 2.00 pm to 6.30 pm and the vote will be taken subsequently.

It was handed over to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya on March 24. The Motion alleged that Finance Minister Karunanayake was mishandling the economy thus putting the country into an economic crisis and that faith in the Minister had been lost as a result.

UPFA MPs handed over a NCM against Minister Karunanayake to the Speaker on May 18 last year but it was not taken up for debate as the House was dissolved on June 29. Meanwhile, participation has been made compulsory for all ruling party MPs for the parliamentary session on June 8, when the NCM against Minister Karunanayake is to be taken up for debate.

All ruling party MPs have already been informed to attend the upcoming parliamentary sessions whether they are in the country or overseas.

A meeting of the ruling party Parliamentary group is scheduled to be held at the Presidential Secretariat under President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tomorrow (June 6) where UNP MPs and the UPFA representing the government are expected to participate.

Another UNP parliamentary group meeting will also be held tomorrow at Temple Trees at 3.00 pm under the patronage of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. UPFA Colombo District MP Udaya Gammanpila told the Sunday Observer that there were several grounds which compelled the Joint Opposition to move the no confidence motion against the Finance Minister. His conduct as the Finance Minister is questionable. Unfortunately, the Government has not taken any action against him.

“He tabled a Budget report in Parliament and it was passed in Parliament with a two-thirds majority, but he amended it thereafter. No proper Budget has been presented for this year. He imposes taxes all most every week. Sri Lanka is heading towards an economic crisis like what happened in Greece due the economic mismanagement of the Finance Minister,” he said.

“People are suffering because of his misdeeds and misjudgments. As we don’t command a majority in Parliament we have created an opportunity to remove the Finance Minister. If a majority of Parliamentarians defend him, people will decide about them at the next election,” Gammanpila said.

JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the JVP’s Central Committee meets today (June 5) to take a decision regarding the no confidence motion against the Finance Minister.