Chairman says 53,709 informal housing loans given then
Government saved over Rs. 7,852 mn now
62,994 houses started when monies were only for 40,500 houses
The government has incurred a loss of over Rs.5,564 million due to the informal provision of housing loans during the tenure of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa as the Housing Minister from 2015-2019.
The loans of 53,709 beneficiaries given when Sajith Premadasa was the housing minister had to be restricted due to this, National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) Chairman Rajeev Sooriyarachchi said.
Due to the effort the government had been able to save over Rs.7,852 million. During the period of 2015-2019 when the current Opposition Leader was the housing minister, seven housing projects had been initiated. National Housing Development Authority Chairman said that these informal housing loans have mostly happened in 2018 and 2019.
Years 2018 and 2019 are periods in which the Local Government Election and the Presidential Election were held in Sri Lanka.
In the year 2019 alone, the construction of 62,994 houses had been started although allocations were only for 40,500 houses.
During 2015 and 2019, Premadasa had started the construction of 341,510 houses, but only 233,578 houses had received the necessary provisions.
Accordingly, it was not possible to provide future loan installments for 1,07,932 housing recipients.The reason is the lack of necessary provisions.
Minister Prasanna Ranatunga, after being appointed as the Minister in charge of Urban Development and Housing, suspended the initiation of new projects and advised the completion of old projects.
Accordingly, during the inspection of the process of granting housing loans during the time of Sajith Premadasa, it was found that 53,709 of the housing recipients were ineligible for it. Accordingly take steps to suspend their future installments.
Minister Ranatunga has requested more than Rs.15,327 million from the Treasury to complete the construction of the remaining 45,093 houses and presented a related Cabinet paper.
Accordingly, the Cabinet has approved to provide the necessary provisions for the construction of those houses under several stages. The Chairman says that the Cabinet has approved to submit the proposal in the upcoming budget to obtain the necessary provisions to complete the construction of these houses.
The Opposition Leader recently accused in parliament that the housing loan that he started during his tenure as housing Minister has been suspended.
Responding to this, Chairman Rajeev Sooriyarachchi said that the loans that have been restricted are the loans given by Premadasa in an informal manner.The chairman further claims that this loan restriction was done with the agreement of the credit recipients.
