How one family made a country bankrupt in 30 months - Bloomberg

The world-renowned Bloomberg magazine has published a report on Sri Lanka and how one family made a country bankrupt in 30 months.

In their report, the magazine has clearly outlined how President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had taken the country towards bankruptcy from the time he was elected.

Mangala's foresight..

‘Ahead of the November 2019 election, Sri Lankan presidential challenger Gotabaya Rajapaksa proposed sweeping tax cuts so reckless the incumbent government thought it must be a campaign gimmick.

The finance minister at the time, Mangala Samaraweera, called a briefing to assail the “dangerous” pledge to reduce the value-added tax to 8% from 15% and scrap other levies. To him, it was simple math: Sri Lanka collected relatively less revenue than nearly any other country, and its high debt load had forced it to seek cash from the International Monetary Fund. It took about 30 months for his prediction to come true,” Bloomberg reported.

After Rajapaksa won the 2019 election, reviving one of Asia’s most powerful dynasties, he passed the tax cut immediately in his first cabinet meeting….. But that strategy quickly backfired. In recent weeks Sri Lanka ran out of cash to pay for essential goods like food and fuel, leading to long petrol lines and daily 13-hour power cuts, the report further states.

For 12 of the last 20 years, members of the Rajapaksa family have controlled the highest reaches of Sri Lanka’s government, Bloomberg points out.

The full report could be accessed here -

Politics - A Powerful Dynasty Bankrupted Sri Lanka in Just 30 Months