‘Consider ongoing crisis as matter of opportunity for faster reform process’

Sri Lanka needs to consider its ongoing crisis as a matter of opportunity for a faster reform process, Former Minister of Finance in Georgia Aleksi Aleksishvili said.

“There is opportunity in every crisis and to recover faster from any crisis , it is required to turn a crisis into an opportunity, which often requires new ways of responding and reforming processes relating to tax and custom administration , judiciary process, law enforcement and many other sectors,” Former Minister of Finance in Georgia Aleksi Aleksishvili told the Economic Summit 2022, held in Colombo this week.

Speaking on widespread corruption which was the root cause for the downfall of Georgia’s economy in 2003, Aleksishvili said Georgia’s economy bounced back to normalcy following an extensive reform process ,which covered a whole gamut of government organizations.

“We need to learn from others’ mistakes and past experiences, and then come up with a committed plan to fight against the cause of corruption within the government in the areas of laws, regulations and procedures”.

According to Aleksishvili his country was able to eliminate close to 90 % of malpractices and cumbersome procedures relating to license and permits alone.

“In addition, law enforcement institutions were fortified to tackle corruption and identify corrupt officials within those institutions itself. Georgia was known for this shock approach across the world.”

On the tax administration front, to make the tax system more transparent, friendlier and understandable to the general public, a simplified tax system was introduced by way of merging or terminating some of the taxes, Aleksishvili said.

Exchange rate remains stable through October

Exchange rate continued to remain stable through October 2022, following the introduction of daily permissible band in mid-May 2022.

The Central Bank allowed some flexibility to the market guidance on the exchange rate with the announcement of a symmetric variation margin on either side of the weighted average spot exchange rate from mid-October 2022 onwards.

Accordingly, from 13 May 2022 to date, the Sri Lanka rupee recorded a marginal depreciation against the US dollar, despite recording a depreciation of 44.8 per cent against the US dollar during the year up to 06 December 2022.

Meanwhile, reflecting cross-currency movements, the Sri Lanka rupee depreciated against the euro, the pound sterling, the Japanese yen, the Australian dollar, and the Indian rupee during the year up to 06 December 2022.