Economic Policies For Tomorrow | The Debate By CCC

on the stage while they are taking their seats I will W extend an especially warm welcome to our special invitees honorable shahan Seas singha honorable Dr harha dilva honorable Professor Ranjit bandara and Dr Harish suya Pera and of course our moderators chairman of the salon chamber Mr duminda hangam and Board member Miss casturi chaja before we commence may I draw your attention to the QR code behind me and ask you to take just a moment to scan the code which will give you access to the chamers landmark policy document Vision 2030 which was just recently launched I do urge you to access it as it will prove useful as a point of reference during the debate also an announcement due to the extremely high demand in today's debate we are live streaming it on our Facebook page and with that I will now ask Mr hangam to take over the proceedings good morning ladies and gentlemen omon Chamber of Commerce I extend a warm welcome to all of you are here to uh join discussion on the theme defining the vision uh first time that a debate of this nature is been organized and I thank all of you for your uh graceful presence I also want to extend uh warm welcome to our panelists honorable Shan SE sing honorable har Silva honorable Ranjit bandara and Dr s Sur peruma uh we have very time so I'll just give you a format in which we are going to given to each panelist yes we want to be 8 so you finish at 10 8 minutes for each panelist uh to make a presentation uh in brief of their policy uh thereafter we'll have a moderated question answer session which be done by kasturi and myself uh with three questions to each panelist and uh you can confine to 3 minutes uh for your answer uh we'll have three rounds of questioning uh thereafter we will invite the panelist to question each uh other of their policies or ask for clarification so it's a question answer s between the panelists uh that will take another 15 20 minutes uh with 3 minutes uh for each person so uh and we hoping to finish it by 10:30 1045 uh I'm aware you have to leave for your Manu launch but we'll finish it by 10:30 uh so with that uh may I first invite uh honorable Shian Seas Singa representing the honorable rkr singha to uh make his presentation on the policy statement [Music] good morning firstly let me thank the Chamber of Commerce for organizing this event and uh wish to make a brief statement on the vision that we're trying to take forward excellencies and a distinguished panelist firstly okay firstly uh let me give a brief explanation on how the country was looking back in 2022 the economy came to a complete standstill back in 2022 and I think uh it was mainly due to uh it was mainly due to the lack of foreign currency where we could not even uh purchase our basic requirements needs required for daily lives from there onwards uh the government had a ambitious reform agenda it was faced in uh three folds one was to ensure that uh we address the foreign exchange crisis and eliminate shortages number two was to ensure that uh we address the root causes of the crisis and the macroeconomic vulnerabilities to stabilize the economy the third phase was to ensure complete stabilization and economic growth okay the phase one we began in 2022 April the immediate measures resulted in uh in uh resolving the cues on fil the the the cues began to decline the availability of essential food items improved power Cuts became shorter more importantly uh fertilizer was made available food production resumed cash transfers to vulnerable communities and households were increased a major food crisis was AED which everybody was predicting that there will be a severe food shortage as we uh uh ruled out remittances resumed the tourism sector had an increase economic activities uh started to grow by early 2023 the cubes were completely eliminated and we restored the electricity supplies without any power Cuts in our view the plan was successfully completed and then uh the second phase was the most important to ensure stability and uh get the economy going but while doing that the government as a policy did not uh ignore the fact of the fundamental causes of macroeconomic vulnerabilities and instability a comprehensive macroeconomic reform program was initiated to address these root causes this was a primary requirement at that time we adopted a comprehensive fiscal reform a monetary policy reform the state owned Enterprises reform Financial sex reform Deb restructuring and then more importantly welfare programs the primary budget deficit in 2021 was 5.7% of the GDP which was converted with this reform program to a primary surplus of 0.6% of GDP in 2023 in the first 6 months months of 2024 the primary Surplus reached rupees 543 billion inflation declined to 2.4% from 70% food inflation which was at 95% reduced to 1.5% the taxpayers the numbers dropped down to 437,000 was increased to 1.15 million in 2023 usable reserves were at uh USD 20 million in April 2022 by end of July 2024 Cross official reserves was increased to 5.6 million 5.6 billion losses of the two losses of the 52 important s soes which was at 7 75 billion in 2022 converted to a profit of 456 billion in 2023 interest rates started declining from 30% to a single digit the currency appreciated from approximately 363 to 300 rupees the trasy cash balance was converted for an overdraft from over draft of 832 billion in n21 to a positive cash balance of rupees 54 52 billion by end of uh 2024 April as a part of the reform program and the Improvement in the economy we also compared the pricing which has declined uh significantly I will not explain it has it's there in the Slide the essential items including fuel the costs started coming down I think uh people expect more reductions to be done but it's in a more systematic manner that we control the economy therefore the market driven economic concept we will ensure that the prices uh come down further down with the with the confidence boost in the economy uh the more important factor in this entire reform program was uh making sure that we look after the poor and the vulnerable communities in Sri Lanka we we do admit the fact that poverty levels have increased to 50 to 25% that is part that was as a result of the crisis we P faced one was uh covid and then the economic crisis we had to face we increase the cash transfers in a more more scientific method we are thankful to the World Bank who assisted us where the poorest household in this country had a cash transfer of 15,000 from a level of 4,500 a month apart from that the elderly citizens citizens with uh disabilities kidney patients who needed support from the government were also supported and their cash transfers were increased by 50% than what they got before so while we shaped our economy we ensured that we give the basic uh requirements that can be funded by an individual the other most important thing in phase two was to bring in honorable s sing your time is up you have 1 minute more sorry give me a minute the more important factor is is bringing in the legislations which were required we emphasized the last two years we emphasized on the new uh laws and legislations which are passed in Parliament mainly the Central Bank ACT public financial management ACT public debt management act economic transformation law parliamentary budget office and the amendment to the Banking Act and banking special Provisions act so these were key legislations that were introduced to ensure fiscal discipline in Sri Lanka apart from uh combat apart from the measures taken to combat bribery and corruption in my next session I will explain on how we have emphasized and introduced new legislations with the assistance of the IMF the World Bank the ADB and the other partners to combat bribery and Corruption I think that will have a significant uh result in the future and that is something which uh which every citizen in Sri Lanka expects a government to do so I think we are in the right path and the economy is strengthening on a daily basis we have gathered momentum on confidence of the economy so it is up to the people of Sri Lanka to decide whether we take this uh growth forward or we decide otherwise so let let us see what happens on the 21st of September but the Assurance what we can give you is that the economy is in the right path the critical point on the 21st that people has to decide would be on the economy how we are going to grow or are we going uh for a for a decline in the economy thank you thank you honorable s and I invite Dr AR to make his presentation please good morning uh ladies and gentlemen thank you for this invite friends given the 10 minutes I'll be very I'll very quickly explain our game plan and why we need to be elected our objective is a win for all for all Sri Lankans based on our conviction that a social market economy is what we will bring the desired outcomes in short our model is a synthesis of economic freedom the belief in markets and economic Justice the belief in equity and everybody gets a piece of the pie having said this let me quickly detail out our 10-point plan consisting of Five Pillars the first pillar these are my 10 points the first pillar is transparency and accountability this is necessary this is a necessary condition to move forward but it is not sufficient we will set the right legal framework strengthen the COK and key among our plans is setting up an independent public prosecutor to take away the conflicts of interest between corruption litigation and the Office of the Attorney General on public procurement we bring in the public procurement law e procurement platforms new laws for asset recovery and also importantly better transparency in Public Finance Management including the the bill just passed on the Parliamentary budget office the second point is uh on on stabilization we got four segments in this first is uh debt crisis management we will continue the negotiations if Agreements are not signed by the 21st I hope the deal is close close to be uh closed at the same time engage with with IMF to amend certain terms staying within however the DSA parameters we don't intend to shift those parameters but we plan to amend within those ensure Financial system stability while dealing with the npl issues that we all face loan Revival units parate issues with msmes Etc the second point is monary and exchange rates maintains the strengthened independent Central Bank we are not going to change that legislation we supported it we will ensure that they report to Parliament as required but we will not interfere in setting interest rates keeping in mind however Governor the need for international competitiveness by ensuring an appropriate real exchange rate that's what we actually require to be comparative third third is revenue consolidation we agree on the need to increase Revenue to 15.4% by 2027 to 2029 how do we get there while improving Equity of Taxation key here is digitalization the Ramis the asuda excise all those things we will be looking at very seriously and we will and this has been talked about for a long period of time uh to create a unified Revenue Authority regist ation of taxpayers we heard that there are 1,100 or 1.1 million there's a lot of double counting so we need to ensure that people are registered business professionals expand the net increase compliance but there is one major proposal that's a middle class tax cut the taxfree threshold will remain however from there uh to close to half a million rupees uh you will pay at the marginal rate Maxim IM marginal rate of 24% and the rich will have to pay at 30 and 36% we're not being irresponsible we are being responsible because we understand the repercussions of striking out taxpayers several adjustments are proposed for corporate income tax for exporters that is because of ideology that we need to remove the anti-trade bias in our economy but we will talk about that later we also thinking about the minimum alternative tax talking about the the uh the oecd pillar two on the uh base erosion and profit shifting uh taxes and we will not Mah is going to get displeased with me remove as plann the svat as it now stands because there are two svats the suspended vat and the simplified vat I believe we believe that the suspended vat makes sense and we will discuss it on how to actually implement the earlier svat for exporters and those providing services to exporters Fourth is expenditure control rationalized public expenditure data driven planning transparency in accountability leakage of uh cash transfers VI digital mechanisms we'll prioritize infrastructure expenditure we will complete the candy highway but beyond that we will have to see whether how much we're to put on highways for the LRT uh the train we will we will look at carefully military spending has to be rethought any excesses will be moved to pay teachers s soe reforms sures will continue with uh the basic game plan of a holding company and the secret treasury will decide on the divers based on National Security issues and things of that nature there's going to be some increase in expenditure public sector salaries will increase but that is based on the presidential commission the cabinet Commission on salary disparities we are not planning on moving away from that we will keep to the 24% and we'll keep to the 25,000 and that we assume is possible because the treasury has issued a statement that they can do it maternity leave benefits and menstrual Equity will be two things that we will be focusing on beyond that third pillar is the most important and that is incentive advicing growth uh more from an anemic 3% growth we need to get to a higher growth path right post IMF program if we grow at 10% it'll take us till 2047 to reach $23,500 which is a developed country so let us get started moving in that direction we don't want to give false promises but we want to unshackle the markets reduce and remove interventions and increase productivity which is critically important total Factor productivity four areas trade and investment policy reform here we talk about tariff rationalization export strategy National single window and new EPC models we agree uh with the new legislation on private uh Enterprise zones we are fully geared to modernizing agriculture uh uh removing the asymmetry in agriculture markets Farmers don't know what the uh buyers want then breaking the rice Mafia is priority uh to bring down prices access to land the Shakti rise cooperation Etc Cooperative third area is Industrial Development connecting to Global productive networks production networks our failure has been for decades we have been inward looking we've been statist parari since 94 worse since 2005 this country this economy has really a structural problem of an anti- tradable bias we need to remove that Dr har you have uh 30 seconds left no you give me right okay 2 minutes more here the problem is breakdown of walls and Building Bridges the fourth criteria the last one is on services I don't need to explain on it on logistic takes and all the while paying attention to the msme sector the fourth pillar is public sector management digitalization a whole program is based on a digital public infrastructure I'll stop at that on that energy and utilities reform we agree with most of the uh the new legislation but we can't grf forther non-competitive bids there is a major focus on uh on uh renewable energy factor market reforms we will continue what needs to be done and the last pillar is a strong social safety net this is key like Shan said 7 million people are in poverty so therefore sajit wants to create a model that is more like janavia where you don't just Dole out money you have to work for your money and that's a 24mon program until that is uh uh structured we will continue with the asasa but we plan to increase the first two uh Lots from 5,000 and from 8,500 to 10,000 and during the discussion I'll be more than happy to show you how we plan to increase the revenue to meet all this expenditure the so to summarize we will continue the path of recovery we acknowledge the positives yet change to ensure the recovery does not come the expense of our people's survival we will incentivize tradable export growth in the long term to permanently lift Sri Lanka out of the cycle of Crisis by generating high growth we will undertake reforms to sustain the change we create to unshackle markets and to use digitalization to the max to increase efficiencies and productivity across the economy and at the end what we will do is to bring a win for all Sri Lankans thank you very much thank you uh Dr harar Silva may now invite Professor anjit bandar from the slpp morning everyone thanks for the invite this is a 10-year plan with two component which is outcome oriented in this there will be immediate relief package two speakers have explained why we need a relief package and sustainable integrated growth strategy with four pillars and at the end and there will be a economy from 90 billion 280 billion within a period of 10 years we are looking at 7% annual average GDP growth there will be increasing per capital per capita income from us D 4,000 to 8,000 over a period of 10 years what we propose is based on the essence of mahinda chint however in this fundamentals of Mahindra chint is timely revised modernized structured innovate to address the current issues and enhance the future prospects of the economy there is a achievable outcomes oriented policy framework there are no fairy tales including it let me answer a possible question you may ask why we have taken the essence of Mahindra chint which was proven an outcome oriented visible sustainable and holistic what will be presented briefly here will be presented on the 2nd of September you will see the details of our policy framework for the time being let me briefly explain what we are proposing in our policy framework as I said it will be in two component one is the package of immediate relief across the board number two there is a integrated sustainable economic growth plan with four pillars let me outline the package of immediate relief the Lis can go up to 100 but of course for the time consideration food for all relief for utility bills affordable fertilizer 100,000 jobs Financial Empowerment of Youth strengthening the suudi program immediate tax relief efficient Public Service uninterrupted medicine Supply Fast Track investment and also for the first time State balance sheet fory CIT were necessary and research for commercialization now let me take you to the first pillar of sustainable growth plan that is prioritizing the state now why we need to Prior the state we have to protect our national interest economic sustainability therefore in which we propose efficient Public Service mostly to support the other three pillars in our growth plan let me take you to the second segment of this growth plan that is innovation where we have four main section which are key to achieve straight priorities as I said National interest economic growth social progression environmental sustainability now this particular pillar includes State sector that is public sector optimization e-governance no sales of public Enterprises High equality public administration etc etc agriculture modernization manufacturing sector and the service sector now the third filler investment We Believe investment in four areas are essential to drive Innovation Le development entrepreneurship human resource and enhancement research and development for commercialization investment in infrastructure and the fourth filler which is freedom We Believe four main type of personal freedom are essential for scale up the development program that we propose number one expanding the economic freedom protecting political Freedom protecting cultural freedom protecting religious freedom this policy framework is meant to address immediate issues that many of us facing right now and also to to take the Sri Lanka to the next level and as I said we have include no fairy tales this is doable How We Do It we will expand the economy from 90 billion to 180 billion with a 7% annual average growth rate thank you very [Applause] much thank you Professor B you talk to time uh may now invite Dr har Sur representing the NPP I asalam alaykum and good morning to you all I suppose D we would have had many sessions of this nature when there's an election nearby we would have listened to this type of Rosy stories or fairy tales lot of graphs as to this is how we are going to implement but look at but look at the results it's boiling down to implementation it's about credibility of political leaders to deliver what they preach if you look at the auditor general statement my presentation will have two components just to brief one is why we are here today as a nation and what's our plan as we go forward auditor general of the country is mentioning since 2015 to 22 8 8 trillion rupees government has borrowed as for project loans of which 75% is unaccounted for our International counterparts I'm sure they are listening this is where the money is going duminda representing Auditors it will be an insult to Auditors when auditor General has reported 75% of the funding is unaccounted for we are here listening to a team who are answerable for that that's one angle Madame kasturi coming from the private sector in your organization if you have managers key managers who have never delivered the budget overs spent on their budget on their expenses overloaded factories with staff never delivered what they promised would you in would you interview them again to ask what are they going to do within the next 5 years what would your shareholders think if you do that one what would your employees think who would look up to you if you do that but here we are today doing the same thing listening to failed politicians and their stories as to how are we going to do it again within the next 5 years that's why a change of culture is required in Sri Lanka as to how we approach this as a nation Central Bank printed enormous amount of money which provision of the previous Central Bank act prevented the monetary board to take an independent decision as if there were competent officials there appointees there to say no to a minister when the government is asking if the secretary the to the treasury is asking to print money that's why there are many members not just one in the monetary board to say no not to be overwhelmed by intimidation of politicians that is the change of culture we need to look at not just by changing legislations few months back the same secretary to the treasury said if you are going to increase 10,000 rupees we have to increase vet we don't have money 2 months later when the government is saying we are going to increase salaries again the same cir State officials are saying oh yes the government revenue has now increased we can ask IMF to increase our Provisions for increasing salaries we need a change of culture where State officials will be able to stand up on their own for what they truly believe not to be lip servants to the politicians that's the change of culture that we are talking of let's get quickly to the presentation we'll move on to the next slide please it's about the future of this country we have seen promises that were saying I don't know how many of you all came today in a Vox Ur made in Sri Lanka I'm not sure whether the Ambassador from the German Embassy is representing us this were which one I should I press okay thank you so whether the German ambassador or the diplomats will vouch for these stories that was told misled people to win elections Google balloons I can see it's Hing all over Sri Lanka and we are enjoying free internet now in one angle some are saying we have to bring an end to the Menace of subsidies whereas the same politicians are going and leaders are going and distributing handouts Party leaders are saying senior officials saying that the they are funded through illegitimate illegitimate sources should we continue this political culture in Sri Lanka we are saying we have endered cues if you go and looked at the Visa Q yesterday this would have been your picture millions of Sri Lankans are trying to run away from this country this is the country this failed policies and politicians have created don't we need to change that so that's why and the political culture once again the C Central cultural fund there's a report saying there's allegations saying so much of misappropriation it has come to Parliament where are the outcomes is this the culture that we want to continue we can see few weeks back a banking seminar was called and banking senior officials were advised on governance side I couldn't stop laughing when I see who was on the stage and when the state Head of the State under the Privileges of parliament is abusing the Judiciary where can you expect the rule of law the this is the change that we expect for Sri Lanka this is the change people of Sri Lanka is asking for that's what NPP is all about it's about the leadership it's about the purpose-driven policies it's about a team with an unblemished track record to deliver with exper experience and expertise it's about clean politics accountability governance and transparency in our implementation it's about rule of law that we are going to deliver allow businesses to ensure you will have a Level Playing Field and fairness in terms of Conduct in terms of take by taking away the impunity given to politicians and the same law will be applied equally to them as well as to you not to rob the business opportunities that you have it's built on a Bedrock of zero tolerance for corruption when the high level of the country is tarnished and tainted with corruption you cannot expect the ministers the cabinet the secretaries the board of directors of State institutions to say no to corruption there will be a zero there will be zero tolerance for corruption in the policies that we Implement government will play the role as the facilitator provide the necessary resources for the businesses to grow to the full potential that you deserve to be this is the opportunity that we will create it will be through a wave of digitization we will bring resources together we will connect entities connect businesses connect IND individuals to take Sri Lanka forward we have I'll take few more seconds yes I'll stop now and it will be by creation through the production economy which I will explain we will connect Sri Lanka to Global value chains allow you to thrive as businesses to the best potential of yours but at the same time deliver social equity and inclusion Also let's discuss more detail when we get a Time thank you very much ladies and gentlemen thank you very much a lot of answering that you all have to do uh may I now turn to the uh Q&A uh my first question to uh ah okay I'm sorry I'm sorry about we have a side change CH in the format uh gentlemen have to stand and answer uh with podium in front of you whil we are seated can to create that an atmosphere for a true debate you have to come up to the podium PR first eat it yeah so my first question is to uh honorable Shan s singer if you don't mind I think we like you all to be uh at the podiums we have made all of few sorry yeah we are seated yes you're serving the people after all yeah uh uh honorable Shan sing uh we saw your presentation where you have mentioned a lot about what has happened over the last 2 years uh in terms of stability uh but what is your program that you all have in mind to bring growth because stabilizing ation and reform K the strategy every day there has to be a growth path that also you have to show as to how you going to bring uh 3 4 5% 6% growth uh at least in 3 four years time I work towards that so what exact plans does honorable R Singh has uh in the event is elected uh to bring the growth strategy you have 3 minutes to answer dind it's a good question and we have already reached and hopefully we will reach somewhere around 4% growth this year so the key was reforms you can't forget the reform path and more Sri Lanka has faced a crisis situations in the past then we go to the IMF this is the 17th time we go to the we went to the IMF the moment we stabilize there is a tendency to reverse so this vicious cycle plays in Sri Lanka and as a result I don't think any of us would wish for 18th IMF program which will be very tough than the 17th program what we go through we have a plan on this the main uh reason why we introduced the economic transformation law was aimed at this plan because every political uh leader tends to bring out policies which he thinks would make him popular so now we have a law in place the law has targets it is uh answerable to Parliament and it is the duty of any government to ensure that you deliver what is being specified in the law and if there is a deviation then still there is a way out to that also to ensure that the country won't return back to a uh crisis we do understand growth is very important but at the same time stability is also very important we need uh stability uh basically uh to to to be enabled without growth we can't uh have stability so stability should run in parallel with growth and we have always shown our results I think the results itself will speak and we will uh maintain expect to have a growth strategy of 7% in the economy to ensure that uh we have lost basic basically our GDP has come down and Our intention is to ensure that we have a further growth on on on the economy and ensure that we are fully stabilized I think this will take a further uh 12 to 15 months and thereafter we can have a safe and a promising country what we wish for thank you uh can you say something what something that what will you do different to what you are doing now in the event your candidate El okay one if I look if I on the growth side of yeah now if you look at on the growth side okay give me a second please the more importantly we will uh how where did Sri Lanka Focus Mo mostly we focus mostly on on fiscal or monetary stimulus than going in for productivity increase so this is one of the key concerns we all had and that had not worked well for for Sri Lanka then secondly we also will we have already introduced New Economic Zones and also the new ftas we are looking at we have already finalized the FDA with Thailand to ensure liberal trade we also discussing and near finalizing the FDA with uh with uh with India with the ecta uh agreement that will also have uh uh will will will help us to grow the economy and also if you look at the ETA the economic transformation bill this also have the productivity commission the productivity commission will basically support productivity enhancement of firms seeking to penetrate to inter to export markets and those facing import uh competition we will also have a uh national uh trade National single window process which we are working on which is uh need of the hour and also the a national tariff policy that strikes a fair balance between interest of exporters importers and consumers agriculture modernization would be one of the key sectors Sri Lanka will our government will focus on and then if you look at the rum program of uh land ownership so that will also be very important to stimulus growth okay thank you so we'll stop at that C thank you very much Dr har Sila this question is to you uh so we've heard your uh candidate presidential candidate say num in numerous places and we've read as well that under him the government will look at renegotiating the IMF terms and conditions today you actually said that you all are looking at giving additional public sector salary adjustments uh I think yesterday or day before there was a conversation of you all giving 20,000 rupees or is it a Gratis and I I'm not sure whether it is a Gratis or a program uh to the poor now in this context can you tell us the parameters you're looking at to renegotiate in relation to the three factors of Revenue of GTB to GTP gross financing needs and primary account Surplus and this at the same time to ensure that Deb sustainability is achieved well I mean I'll be quite honest with you uh we we all know it was us who advocated in 2020 August the first day I came to Parliament ninth Parliament that you guys better go to the IMF and resolve this before we became bankrupt all you guys laughed at me said what nonsense we have a homegrown solution there is no homegrown solution for or there was no at the time right and we all learned lessons we don't have to be standing here saying look you know we are unable to change any condition in the IMF agreement we don't buy that we didn't oppose the government going to the IMF we didn't vote against it because we knew as a responsible opposition that was necessary at the time now from that day on we said there are certain things we need to amend if you recall the graph I put up on the screen that showed how the emerging markets were contributing to Global Production it was going up and up and up and Sri Lanka's case you saw it going up and then crashing we are one of the most closed Economist in the world you look at how you measure trade openness add exports and imports divide that by GDP compare against other countries you realize yourself so we need to ensure that we realign our economy from a uh what some people call import substitution statist remove the anti- tradable bias in our system unless you do that we are never going to get the kind of growth that people are talking about so for us the problem in the IMF agreement is for them debt is debt growth is growth and we say no debt is external debt domestic debt and we need tradable growth and non-tradeable growth during Mr Mahindra Raj pak's time we had 9% growth in 2012 and it crashed to 3% 3 and a half% in 2013 because it was construction L non-tradeable growth that is not sustainable so what we told the IMF is what we need need to ensure that we are safe our debt is sustainable on the external front is to ensure that we have growth on the tradable front now we need to link those two things to us this agreement is more like a extended SBA than a external extended fund facility so therefore some tilting of the economy making sure the incentive structures are right so that it is more profitable for investors like yourselves to put money in internationally competitive production rather than sort of be protected behind protection large protective walls and to be inefficient and yet make money hand over fist and sometimes even think of running for president so in that context the other issue we've told the IMF is about equity in taxes a lot of middle class people people working up to say getting you know 500,000 Rupees a month is getting hammered at 36% highest marginal tax rate at 38,000 rupees a month can you live with that but at the same time we have undertaken to deliver 15.4% so like I said on the taxes we are not changing the DSA parameters we have been very clear the 15.4% on taxes the 2.3% Peter and I had a great debate I said look Peter 2.3 2.1 let's discuss this right but essentially we are not messing around with the DSA we're not going to do an alternative DSA the DSA what you did Mahindra what you did nandala is not what is being applied it is what they did the staff did anybody can download the DSA and do it but that doesn't mean you can get the IMF to agree to that because all of those are based on assumptions you can say uh uh that Professor you can have 7% growth but where are you going to get the 7% growth that's why I said even post IMF to get to $223,000 you need 10% growth year on year on year on year can you do that let's be realistic right so on that basis what I explain is our middle class tax card and we have been extremely responsible we're not changing the tax fee limits we're not changing the 36% limit will the parameters that are currently they are the 2.4% targets AG by are you going to how going to find out so we got the 95% right then we got a 133% within the 133% we got the 4 and a half% we got the 2.3% and then you got to make sure you have enough debt restructuring to fill the uh Gap that's all right but within that certainly we once we get elected on the 22nd of this month next month must have uh the the freedom within the parameters within the Contours to make certain adjustments so the adjustments we are not talking about here and nothing for you to worry about is we are not going to collapse the program because we are the people who told to go to the IMF and also on the on the monetary policy side you know we are not going to set interest rates we won't how can we the whole point of printing money is setting interest rates you set interest rates at 5% and tell the Central Bank you print at 5% right so we are not D we are responsible please understand we have a good team we have Iran we have Kabir myself also included we know we worked in this country we worked overseas we have been entrepreneurs we have created wealth right created jobs worked and also understand sagit I'll tell you the issue sjit understands he he he gets the pulse of the poor there is massive poverty 3 million to 7 million you see you can't fill a pot if you keep the pot upside down you to you got to make the pot stand with the opening on top so the water goes in okay as much as you want to do all these reforms is like pouring water on a pot that is turned upside down thanks thank you harha thanks a lot I'll come back to you again I know we have lot to talk but we'll have a little of time Professor bandar my next question is to uh I thought you have changed your strategy uh you see the slpp strategy was always big governments big infrastucture projects funded by loans and that is how you ran the economy they goods and bad good and bad are both right now listening to you uh it appears that you're still promoting big government you're promoting public sector involvement I just listen to you is that going to be a policy again in the current situation in the current context of things where our finances are can you embark on a policy of B government public sector infrastructure the same way that you have done in the past uh I don't think that you have uh understand or understood what I said you see this is a integrated uh growth model where we have state priority the state priority you're talking what is the state priority you're talking National economic growth social progression environmental sustainability and which is integrated connected to each other you can't look at anything in isolation now say for example economic growth can it be happen in isolation no you have to have a holistic approach right Professor bandara the thing I I guess what we trying to get there is this was tried before and the outcome is where we we struggled last two years ago so how do we ensure that that whatever approach if you have the same approach what's the different outcome we can look here this is this is not just straight priority it's connected with four fillers right now look at the second filler Innovation what we do innovate State sector agriculture sector manufacturing sector service sector we need to innovate right you can have dreams you can have uh uh raised voice with lot of emotions and if you looked at the investment entrepreneurship Human Resources development research for commercialization infrastructure these are new adding into you know I told very specifically the policy framework that we are looking at is very simple which is proven now if you looked at over the last 40 to 50 years from 19 uh from 2005 to 2015 what we brought in is remarkable and we have to acknowledge the fact that the essential infrastructure was developed by utilizing them is a is a issue right and then the last pillar of Freedom we need economic that is what har was talking about we need political Freedom that's what he was talking about Al cultural Freedom that's what people talking about and the religious freedom that's what we need in a Multicultural multi-race Society so you won't be able to achieve anything unless you looked at not just economy you have to look at you have to see a Hol istic perspective now those countries developed they have looked at the every single elements some are economics some are non-economics right you just can't say that are you promoting State no we promote State giving priority to drive the force that's what har said that's what I don't think that's what he said no he said he want to strengthen the state as well did you say that harha yes the state mechanism should be strengthened okay thank you very much uh my uh next question is to my next question is to Dr suruma uh I have to I'm sure others will have more questions to answer uh Dr Sur I'm I'm watching your presentation is a lot of criticism of others have done uh rather than what you are supposed to do uh but I know you you released a Manifesto yesterday already before which was very descriptive in terms of what you're planning to do uh from the private sector's perspective the alarming area that we I want to ask you is you said you're going to adjust the DSA uh if the DSA is amended we do not know the IMF will stay in the program from what we understand if you are going to to discuss the parameters again with IMF you said going to negotiate or renegotiate what exactly are going to renegotiate uh with the IMF in order to change the parameters if that happens the program will collapse is our view what what answers can give to that thank you Dinda uh first of all the the letter of invite to the General Secretary of the party did not mention of a setup of this nature it was a discussion but I suppose that's the new format of discussions only what I disclosive standing rest of it was there sure okay uh so that's why I said new format of discussions that's fine we are okay and just wanted to check the reason that I did not spend too much time on the content because we have released the document for the information of public and for the inter for the consumption of International Community as any of the other parties released their origin uh policies we are just 20 days before the election ladies and gentlemen do we have El the party's Manifesto available no so once again we are on a hypothetical Journey we are we are to believe stories of people that's the difference so content I'm coming there okay I'm I'm there so the reason that I took not take much time is on that and the question relating to IMF program and on the DSA a DSA is necessary for a country to negotiate based on their their are basis what is the projection what are the outflows what are the inflows what's the external sector going to be Etc how are you going to refinance at what point you will reach your sustainab that sustainability in order to do that one way is to obviously IMF has given their DSA model what we are saying is we will do our own DSA which we have uh prepared which we are on the process of finalizing with the input of industry and the experts which we are doing at the moment uh so we will have a basis for discussion with imfa principle number one is we have clearly mention we will not derail from the IMF program country is not in a position to do that it'll be within the IMF CLE program yes but we will disc we have already mentioned to IMF as well based on the DSA that we prepare we will present our case to You country millions of children are starving we need to provide relief to them so they have indicated give us our ways of reaching out to the revenue targets give us our ways of managing our expenses then yes we should be able to engage in the conversation to form that basis we need our DSA so DSA contains lot of those information that's going to be our basis for the discussion with IMF that is what is assum mean they refuse to accept your suggestions what are you going to do so IMF based on the discussions that we have had so far several discussions that we have had with IMF they said it is on the credibility of the program that we will bring in and they wanted details of the where we are going to generate Revenue we indicated to them the way the revenue is leaking at the moment the way how treasur is prevented from receiving the revenue that the government deserves for example the sugar Scandal the way how politicians interfered in the middle of the night issue gaset and gave G uh through uh fa did favors to their political uh the people who supported for them to come into power stole billions of rupees so there were money that never cited the treasury so we highlighted the revenue leakages in the current model we suggested how we are going to fix certain institutions which supposed to generate Revenue Customs for example ird for example you can't fix and government institution just by changing the president of the country you can't change the government institution just by putting an army General as the head of the institution we tried it failed you need a change in culture okay thank you thank you as uh I think question yeah so we go into the next round and uh based on time then we can go on to your each of you all asking each other one question but mine is to um Minister shahan um um so in one of the election promises in the in the on road to the election was that uh your candidate is going to um adjust public sector salaries uh uh yes it is to um address the abnormal uh discrepancies you've seen and you want to adjust it in 2025 um when you look at the numbers a 10,000 adjustment would cost uh the country 156 billion perom and to put context to this um last year's Revenue collection on taxes was 144 billion only and then yesterday you all did announc that you all wanting to reduce pay tax as well now in this context how are you going to manage the primary targets and fiscal targets here all announcements are based on uh the 2.3% uh primary balance Target we can't deviate from that and secondly uh I think the tax uh revision what the president announced was something which uh we have been discussing since September 2023 we need where are you going to find the fiscal space for yeah let me let me let me continue on this first and then I'll answer your question so we we initiated discussions in in 2023 September because we also understand when the economy is growing and we need to give a uh substantial share of that growth back to the public now what we have proposed on the pit is uh the the the taxfree threshold will remain at 1.2% 1.2 million peram the tax bans will increase from 500,000 to 720,000 the marginal tax rate at each band remains at 6% and the top level will remain at 36% so the expect ation of this relief is targeted at the mid level so basically if you look at a person having a monthly income of 200,000 will have a relief of 20% anybody has a uh 300,000 uh income will have a 25% uh uh 25% uh reduction and anybody of 400,000 for example will have a 23% reduction this will cost around 0.07% of the uh GDP and that we will have compensating measures but we'll ensure that there is no further burden on the general masses then coming back to the p uh public sector salaries this has been uh discussed with the IMF also for over a year because we do understand our public sector salaries are pretty much lower than the private sector salaries and as a result we are in the view that the public sector salaries should be increased we have a growth of 4% as I said as against uh uh a prediction of 2% and the economy is uh is getting healthier and more momentum on confidence is been growing so we believe this is something that uh something which is expected and we need approximately around additional 250 billion P to have the increase and we'll ensure that uh proposed salary increase will be implemented from 2020 5 January and which will be embedded to the budget which has been prepared now thank you uh honorable s sing hasha my next questions to you uh we have heard and seen your candidate uh saying that they are going to write off agricultural debt of the farmers uh they are going to give 20,000 rupe uh allowance or subsidy to for families so when writing off the debt of the farmers who's going to take that loss how you going to finance it is it the banks who are going to take the loss is it the government that is going to finance it and what is the fiscal space you have the current context in order to finance such a gap I mean let's understand here really what's happening on the ground do mean there right A lot of these poor Folk uh once they basically finish the the sewing they go and uh mortgage their tractor and the rotary because there is no way to continue with the rest of the the cycle of their crop that is the reality right and also a lot of these msme people uh you know the government after much uh Force brought on to it by Saj Pradas on the parate matter give an extension till the uh 15th of December now what happens after the 15th of December let us be also conscious D unlike most of you guys here there are a lot of people who are unable to make in meat I mean what is the point of a government if we can't look after the people right that's what I ended by saying we want to win for all but that cannot come at the expense of our people not being able to make meat you know they cannot buy uh a packet of uh milk powder I have seen in my electorate in C mothers going to the small Cade and purchasing believe me a tablespoon of uh milk powder one tablespoon of milk powder can you even imagine that you CEOs you can't but that's the reality so therefore we have to make sure within our ability to make these people also feel first class citizens of this country not just third class citizens that get crumbs thrown to them all that is true we understand listen every proposal that Mr Saj premadasa has put forward has backing of Revenue we I am telling you there is not one sent that we will spend unless we can show you that revenue is coming and it is not mine to believe we will show you research companies in Sri Lanka have undertaken a lot of this type of you know Revenue shortfalls where you can get Revenue how much it cost to uh you know spend on various programs Dr hasha previously successive governments have identified that they are going to bring revenue on paper but how you going to practically make it happen because there is a whole of a whole change you need to do to do that how are you going to do it one hey he clap for an empty promise because I didn't respond thank you sir anyway no it's it's digitalization it's digitalization the fundamental of this change is through digitalization if India can do it if ad does it if you have the the the pangala selling uh bul on a QR code that Revenue comes to mind currently it doesn't right even look at some people are talking about withholding tax on interest okay think about it how many people are evading how many people are Under reporting so is an opportunity to take at source something on the withholding tax on interest and fees without jeopardizing the actual burden on the people but increasing compliance there are ways to do this D thank you thank you harha um Professor bandara this is for you um this is actually I think it's in everybody's mind and it's important to be addressed here is this tackling corruption right uh everybody has said something in vague form of they're going to tackle corruption with a bill with a law uh we've had this there are enacted bills um my question to you is what are you really going to do to crack corruption how are you going to improve um economic governance and transparency and again what you're doing differently now you see it reminds me 2016 or rather 2015 this 100 day program you remember all during the yal so nothing is possible unless you get the people's Support over it a corruption to a large extent can manage by the law but the law is not just enough you need a wider broad base a strategy to avoid possible corruption now the corruption in our society deals with quite a few commissions departments and various other institutions and so much of corruption is on the air now my friend who was talking about instead of policy he was talking about a political corruption therefore this should come as a part of the citizenship from the school days the time that we start schooling we never heard of these things maybe it has indirectly a part of our curriculum citizens education therefore one way to look at a corruption free Society we have to educate our people now all of a sudden overnight some people become rich so we all have to be watch guards whistleblowers so that is the citizenship instead of having another commission headed by the retired judge now you remember remember during the yal how many institution set up but none got courau none being punished there was a famous institution called FCI those are political Scandal I would say that in our policy priority we take this in a very careful manner knowing that it is a part of the state priority thanks Dr and the freedom that we are looking at thank you thank you so much um Dr har so my question is to you uh um this um yeah you did say yeah I'm from the private sector and in opening remarks you did mention that uh private sector also will not keep managers who do not perform or execute and and deliver cap I also in private sector particular I mean if I speak for myself I would also question and hesitate recruiting somebody who has no experience or has not executed so my question to you and it's a perceived question from the private sector perceived view that they wonder whether the MPP has the capacity to run government and Bureau bureaucracy given the fact that the NPP has not been in power before um what can you say to dispel these concerns thank you very much I suppose it's a very fair question because in one side we have a proven lot proven for corruption proven for robbery proven for incompetency proven for unable to deliver proven for overspending proven for no regard for human life and life of citiz cens in this country on the other side Madame kasuri very true NPP is there unblemished record in terms of corruption but we have a team that you would have repeatedly seen in social media and in media we have I myself being in the government service for nearly 10 years private sector plus government 33 years plus experience I've been in Africa for 6 years I've been in Australia for 5 years but I'm a small fellow at n PP we have professors scientists researchers engineers accountants lawyers you name it the team you all have seen in enormous times uh in in social media wherever we appear and at the same time the question that gentleman the business leader clapped for is for the question not for the answer because those are the questions the country is asking for but Dr again that's the concern is that it's like taking somebody who does research and tell him to manage government bureaucracy and run a country how without experience how are you going to navigate because whatever said on you're inheriting inheriting existing system right correct so that's why I said it requires political will to bring about that change in the country who would have that political will I was not sure we are in a comedy show where when uh the port to representative was saying people are getting rich overnight is this a commod issue I was not sure so that's where the political will has to come the leader has to demonstrate by conduct not just by empty words that people can believe so the team that we have is experienced in the government service in engaging in institutions in working with public in working with International institutions working with uh working in overseas countries developed countries developing countries Emerging Markets who have expertise in respective areas so when you take a candidate to to your institution you look at their track record in terms of what they have done how they have performed have they given fa false promises to their previous employers and they were not able to deliver you can look at the same thing there was a time our The Limited period of time where some of our representatives were in the Parliament and they were in charge of Ministries within 14 months period they turn around loss making institutions to profit making institutions 14 months period okay thank you uh thank you Dr hash so uh ladies and gentlemen we have uh more questions lined up but I think in the interest of time we can't ask all those questions I know some people had to leave sh has to go for the president Ben has go to Candi uh so what we'll do is uh the last session is a bit of a dog fight right I would put that way um you have uh you can raise a question to one or two candidates and such candidates can ask those question in 3 minutes so Shan my first give opportunity to you to raise a question based on the presentation made by any of the three candidates the one that you want to select and the question that you want to ask for a clarification from that candidate okay uh let me ask uh Dr Harish one question now uh in your policy document it's clearly said that the DSA is going to be renegotiated so in our experience and we have uh uh implemented a successful IMF program and now it's a Time the program is bearing fruit I wonder how we are going to have this DSA changed because all parameters in this IMF program the 17th program is uh along with this DSA whether it's uh restructuring or revenue or expenditure all concerns are revolving around the DSA so you are the only party I have heard that the DSA is going to be reading negotiated and what confidence do you have the proposed DSA by the NPP will be accepted by the IMF if not what is going to happen so in my opinion with all the hard work what we have done during the last 2 years I feel you will have to call for an end of the IMF program and renegotiate a complete program which will take a little over 2 years at least so can the country survive and the other point what I want to ask is you were talking about expected revenues now if you see what has happened to males mives have crashed mainly because they were managing the economy with expected revenues they have not managed the external resources so I would like to ask how uh you're going to implement your program and how this program is going to be credible and deliver results thank you I you go ahead thank you very much honorable Deputy Minister for the question I think that the same question Dumas long little while ago which I answered but for somebody who didn't pay attention I'll explain once again so matter of paying attention I was not clear on that answer I'm sorry sure I'll provide more clarity on that one in a much simpler language so D when IMF presented the DSA to the Sri Lankan government they had a basis of SE six s 16 failed implementations in Sri Lanka because they worked with corrupt politicians uh public officials who were lip servants appointed by those corrupt off uh politicians into State institutions so they knew what they were up to so their DSA is on the premises with rampant corruption in the country uncont uncontrollable uh so that's not the question asked I I think the question is how are you going to change and what happens interim if they refuse that that's a question if you can that yes so that's where I'm coming from just answer that yes so that is the basis IMF has given the DSA our basis is you address some of these key concerns in the country which we have already discussed with IMF and in a new culture in a new environment this is how we are going to operate this is how we are going to generate Revenue this is how we are going to manage expenses this is where we are going to uh generate savings and therefore accordingly this leads to our this is our basis for our DSA and IMF said okay let's when we if when we are get when we are elected we'll discuss more to go on on those lines and see what are the possibilities and options because course we clearly indicated it's not a derailment of the program So within the broad parameters it is about providing relief to people hasha what you oh you can choose one candidate to ask a question from one or two sorry yeah we have four opponents now so right I I'll ask Dr Harish just one quick question and then I'll ask Shan something else what is your policy on the Central Bank Independence given that you voted against thank you our policy is Independence not only to Central Bank All State institutions must be relieved from the clutches of politicians politici institution should not be politicized but Independence should not be limited to nameb Independence it is about bringing in people with competency Integrity ability to withstand political pressure to deliver the Mandate of people so our policy on Independence whether it is to the central bank or to the treasury or to the any other state institution it's about giving the true Independence that's where I said at the beginning in my previous explanation previous Central Bank act what was the provision that prevented the monetary board refusing to print money when the political pressure was put applied if it is the case was it because secretary to the treasury was a member of the uh monetary board weren't there many other members to override the request from one member in the monetary board didn't the chairman of the monetary board had a role to play to make that question so these are my responses sir sir my question question is you voted against it no so are you going to repeal it that's the question I'll answer again we will we will strengthen it further Dr hash just to add on to that I'm just curious because you you all uh published your Manifesto and in that there was one line about influencing interest rates now if Central Bank is independent what does that have to do with your Manifesto and interest rates influencing so policy of the political party will be delivered through the state institutions so it's about bringing the man getting the Mandate from people to deliver the policy that we have prepared and that policy will be implemented through the state institutions So when you say influencing it is these policies to be discussed with the state institutions and get them to implement we'll we'll obviously listen to their feedback we'll obviously work with experts in the respective areas and we'll get them delivered thank sir I still didn't get the answer will you repeal the Central Bank act or not that's a simple yes or no answer Dr harana Dr Hara for you it may be a simple answer of yes or no but for 22 million people in this country it is the Calamity politicians have created in the last so many years so our answer we will maintain the we will support the independence of Central Bank we will support the independence of all other institutions as well thank you you can't give Independence to the treasury that is a that is fiscal policy of the government you can only give Independence to Central Bank you can never make the treasury independent if you make the treasury independent how are you going to run your program Independence Independence is about taking the politicization out from these institutions allow professionals senior State officials who have the competency and expertise to run these institutions as I said man people have given the mandate to the government and the government will discuss this mandate this uh details with the state institutions and it will be implemented through them but not politicize B for you sorry Mr bandara I'm sorry I Mok with Raj I'm sorry about Professor V now uh it's unfair but still I have to ask you no no no you see uh the last couple of months uh this was a story in all media forms uh particularly in uh social media that your leader The Honorable Anum take it so easy to pay Governor is 100 billion right to be paid good ask any questions de 100 billion how are we going to deal with as he said it is easy thank you so obviously the de the mountain of debt that you all have created someone has to take the responsibility of discharging that one so that is why if you go through take some time and read this document you will find some of the answers but I'll elaborate so it's about preventing leakages from the government institutions generate Revenue by according to the statistics from the banking sector about 2/3 of the economy functions not in the formal economy it's about bringing them into the FL formal economy on a gradual basis over a period of time allow them to take part in the tax paying activities instead of approximately about the 40% who pays tax Bears the full brunt of uh the Calamity that we are going through so gradual gradually bringing in the informal economy into the formal economy preventing the leakages from the state institutions by eliminating the wasteful expenses of the government that that is where our production economy we have an ambitious Target of 45 billion exports by 2030 so combination of those uh activities will generate the required revenue and the cash flows obviously we will invite we have lot of plans and products that are mentioned to invite Sri Lankan overseas foreign investors to bring in FDI to welcome FDI without asking commission we have lot of plans on running short of time thank you uh I don't think that he have answered har you have you have the opportunity to ask the last question from any other three candidates who are here thank you I'll ask two questions one goes to the uh opposition uh uh Member of Parliament you were saying that opposition in 2020 was saying go to IMF go to IMF go to IMF but when you were in government didn't you have the analysis to show that we are sitting on an unsustained stainable mountain of debt few years few months before maybe a year before when you borrowed two questions when you borrowed heav when the government borrowed heavily the unprecedented amount of borrowings that you all did showed the debt is unsustainable the money that you are taking is merely adequate to repay interest so wasn't there any contingency plan to reach out to IMF at that time why somebody would wait until just the day government changes and shouting at the highest voice in the parliament I told you to go to IMF that's my first question sir by the way I have a name my name is Hara um first thing is uh you know departed mangala Amar did a lot to fix the problem there was a medium-term debt management strategy that was passed in 2018 unfortunately on the coup on 20th of October that got thrown away if is we actually follow the mtts we would not have fallen to this mess even on the uh third week of November second week of November IMF did a study and said the debt was still sustainable unfortunately Mr goab raja's advisor got him to change the taxes and then then we saw what happened but prior to that Mr Indra kumaraswami Dr kumaras Swami was a very respectable is a respectable responsible man when he came to office or when he took over when 2015 happened there was a total of if I remember right 8.2 billion in foreign reserves of that $8.2 billion $3.5 billion consisted of of of hot money uh that uh sorry consisted of uh yes hot money that was uh foreigners brought in dollars converted to rupees invested in treasury bills they could take it back any time another 2.5 OD billion uh were short-term swaps so these were shortterm money that needed to have been uh made longer term so one of the reasons why those uh International Sovereign Bonds were uh uh brought in at that time was to sustain the the uh the the exch the reserves uh that we had because by the time the 2019 government came to office I believe there was about $7.6 billion in reserves and in that 7.6 billion short-term swaps and uh hot money accounted for less than $600 million and also note that verit research had done some work that the money that was borrowed between 2015 and 2019 89.8% of that money was to pay interest on borrowings prior to 2015 and also also note in the year 2019 there was about $5 billion that needed to have been repaid and in that $5 billion was uh uh 1.5 or 7 billion in ISB payments also and also note I asked Dr uh kumaras Swami indit why are you trying to borrow another 2.8 billion he told me hasha this is a election year you don't know what will happened remember last time what happened in 2018 right we were in an IMF program so har we were in an IMF program right the the the goab rajak government threw it away not us and then uh he said October 2018 was a problem uh because money flew out we got we got downgraded and we couldn't pay the the 500 million in January of 2019 I myself with Mangal and indrajit met the the head of the IM in her room we explained what had happened and we adjusted the program slightly so that we could deal with this issue so we knew the problem uh was there it was not a problem created overnight the issue is and continues to be that we are not focusing on tradable growth and unless we are able to get our growth coming from the tradable sector mainly exports and internationally competitive import substitution we are never going to be able to fix this problem so therefore for we know what the problem is I mean I'm not going to throw mud at anyone I didn't thus far and I don't intend to do it now but you know people did attempt to do the right thing and it's unfortunate that our people didn't understand the gravity of the problem and went for false promises and elected that government I hope it doesn't happen again thank you very much two questions you said I had the first two questions the second questions once again to the the last question last question yes please can we know the handout package that opposition uh leader is mentioning several relief programs suggesting uh reducing the fertilizer prices once again to uh it's about 3,000 rupees plus or minus if you look at the current market prices if you look at the 1.3 million hectares only on pad ignoring the fruits and veggies Etc uh and 20,000 rupees for per family uh the the bailout package that looking for we have about 2.5 million families who would have been uh expecting that and a minimum 57,500 government salary indicated and reducing the uh pay from up to 1% to from 1% to 24% the number what is the expected loss of or or the amount that required to finance this the number thank you right on on there is no you can't buy fertilizer for 3,000 bucks a bag why don't the reduction from the current market price of 8,000 rupes plus or minus for 5,000 reduction is three what we have is um about 12 bags per year for 2 hectares 120,000 bucks is what they get right that's a current subsidy right uh which means uh the current cost the current subsidy therefore is 60,000 Rupees right you need um uh uh you need 12 bags for two two two seasons for two hectares you work out the number it's marginal difference when you give it at 5,000 rupees because currently the selling price is between 8,000 and 10,000 on the asasa uh we have said that we are going to increase from 5,000 to uh 10,000 for 960,000 people and then from 8,500 to 10,000 for 960,000 people and the 15,000 that you give currently for 480,000 people will remain right there is going to be a cost and I'll tell you what it is and also the differently aable people ckdu and others there is a certain amount the total program of our expenditure including cost of living allowance the salaries the fertilizer maternity leave benefits menual Equity full subsidies Asuma all of that will be pretty much under 200 billion rupees right and the 200 billion rupees in Revenue we are going to show you that we can get it from the changes that we talk about uh in uh in uh with holding tax excise tax Casino tax property tax sugar sweetness BPS export duties so and so forth we have the numbers like I am telling you one more time right we are responsible we are not going to cap the highest marginal tax rate at 24% I don't know where you got it from because I explained earlier that it is going to go up to 36% right so all what we are doing uh is to readjust realign so that your middle level executive gets a decent amount to take home so he and she can actually spend on something currently they can't um and and and and the and the last point is we have been also most responsible because we don't want to take 100,000 people off the tax files if you increase a threshold from 100,000 to 200,000 people Mahindra correct me if I'm wrong you're going to take out at least 100,000 people I mean we want direct taxes and why am I saying 1% tell me is 1% something that people can't pay aren't people willing to pay for their education aren't they willing to pay for their security aren't they willing to pay for their healthare aren they willing to pay for the S area 1% 1% don't tell me people in this country are so selfish they don't want to contribute they do they can pay 1% 3% they can pay 6% 12% I can also show you the numbers right so we are working within a framework that is not going to disturb the revenue that is why we said we are going to keep to the DSA we are not going to try and force our alternative DSA on the IMF they will not take it you can try but you didn't tell us what would happen if they refuse that was really the question yeah thank you thank you very much you my part of the question is I 2% reduction for a uh uh for the the launch of his party so I'm sorry I can't take any more question it was on the paper that the party leader has said it's 24% he said whether we got saying just one minute because you are talking about your Manifesto our Manifesto blueprint has been in Parliament we we we we subjected it to debate we we we we we we uh we it is in the hands Dr Goda said that was not signed by uh party leader so I don't know which one is the correct version anyway so that's we bring it to a close I am not like you I won't be Kaka right uh was on open media okay please this is not personal let's talk policy I didn't throw mud at you sir right and therefore not about mud it is about facts okay so I I I I lead the sjbs economic team right not anybody else so listen to me when I say what I say is that is the sjb policy thank you hasha right and therefore ours has been in the public domain since uh uh March sorry February of 2023 not today February of 20 2023 thank you very much thank you thank you ladies and gentlemen a warm Round of Applause on behalf of the sonon chamber and uh all our members I uh sincerely thank uh the four speakers uh who came here and uh give very insightful presentation of their party policies and to part active debate I I need one half a second you asked about the German ambassador he has just sent you on the VW I hope you share it with everyone okay honorable his Excellency yuran mohad the exactly what happened about the the emission scan and all of that right thank you you can send it to the thank you ladies and gentlemen for your participation we hope to continue the discussion not now once the government is elected after one year's time we do Elation and see we they s to their promises with that ladies and gentlemen thank you very much for participation thank you very much