Muristek
New Delhi, March 15
Sri Lanka Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa arrived here on Tuesday for a $1 billion bailout package from India. Basil met International Monetary Fund (IMF) head of Asia Pacific Changyong Rhee before leaving for India.
Sri Lanka's economy was facing mounting challenges with public debt reaching unsustainable levels, the IMF had said earlier this month and sought urgent economic reforms to turnaround the dire economic situation. With India, Sri Lanka had last month purchased 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel and petrol to meet urgent energy requirements in the economic crisis worsened by depleted foreign reserves.
Rajapaksa's two planned visits this year were postponed amidst reports that Colombo has delayed delivering its side of the bargain after his virtual summit with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in January.
The two Ministers will discuss the $1 billion loan proposal to import food and medicines as also the earlier agreed $500 million credit line to import fuel from India.
In January, India had bailed out Sri Lanka from its balance of payments difficulties by extending a $400 million swap facility and deferring the settlement of $515.2 million. Thus the help extended by India is worth over $900 million and about $1.5 billion more is in the pipeline. —