Sri Lanka’s total debt is 21 trillion – Vijitha Herath
Posted by Editor on January 22, 2022 - 10:23 am
JVP Parliamentarian Vijitha Herath revealed in Parliament yesterday (January 21) that the total debt of the country is 21 trillion rupees and that most of it has been borrowed during the last few years of the current Government.
He emphasized that the government’s policy today is to steal, borrow and sell.
Although the President had recently stated that he had not taken any loans, Vijitha Herath pointed out that loans worth Rs. 8 trillion have been obtained from the current government.
Vijitha Herath stated that now the people have to call Chinese President Xi Jinping as the father who gave rice (Bath dun piya).
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In 2020, the annual average price was 41.96 U.S. dollars per barrel. price today 87.9 US $. Price increase 45.94 US$.
SL oil consumption 127,000 barrels per day in 2016. Let us assume it is now 135,000 barrels a day after 5 years, which is an under estimate.
We pay extra 135,000 X 45.94 = 6,201,900 US$ a day. That is 6,201,900 X 365 = 2,263,693,500 US$ a year. That is a 2.26 trillion extra paid now in one year. The cost for oil alone is about 87.5 X 135,000 X 365 = 4.3 trillion US$ in one year. Since not a drop of oil is produced in the country, within 2 years Gothabhaya has been in power has to spend roughly 8.6 trillion US$ on oil imports only. Forgetting the cost of COVID control and hand outs plus loss of revenue from tourism.
So, allowing a very generous margin of error in calculation, oil imports alone accounts for at least 5 trillion US$ spent within the last 2 years.