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The IMF have countered allegations of harassing Finance Minister Ravi Karunanyake by saying that “he can dish it out but can’t seem to take it”.
A spokesman for the IMF said, “Ever since he took office under the new Government, Mr. Karunanayake has been harassing the public of Sri Lanka with his dubious finance schemes and having to change the VAT more often Wimal’s wife changes passports. Even VAT 69 accounts for less casualties after a night out than the country’s VAT fiasco. Most business people we meet are sick and tired of the harassment dished out by his ministry on their accounts.”
“As such in the same way he is harassing Sri Lankans on a daily basis, we are harassing him a little bit as well. But in our case, it’s because we need him to do his job properly. Or do it at all. In his case, he is dishing out harassment because he can’t do his job so that is his fall-back position,” he added.
Mr. Karunanayake said, “I mean they are giving a loan and they want to impose conditions on it as well. What kind of a loan is that? They should be grateful that they have someone to loan the money to. We could have easily pawned some of my bling or gone to Salli Silva down in Maradana for the money but we thought we should give some business to the IMF. Now they are saying they won’t give the money if I don’t do my job. If they did their due diligence earlier they would have known that this is an on-going issue.”
One economist said, “Sri Lanka’s VAT rate is like Pi. We can only round it up or down but no one knows exactly what it is. Somewhere between 11% – 15% but no one is certain for sure.”
