Minister Basil leaves for India on official visit

Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa left for India today (March 15) for a two-day official visit.

The lawmaker was accompanied by Secretary to the Treasury, S.R. Attygalle.

Taking to its official Twitter account on Saturday (March 12), the Indian High Commission in Colombo stated that India keenly looks forward to welcoming the Sri Lankan Finance Minister next week.

His visit will consolidate ongoing efforts to further strengthen the economic partnership between India and Sri Lanka, the tweet read further.

Last week, a decision was reached during a telephone conversation between India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, and Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister for the latter to visit India later this month.

During the conversation, Jaishankar had assured that India would continue to support Sri Lanka in all possible ways.

In a virtual held in January this year, the two ministers reviewed the progress in extending the Indian credit facility of USD 1 billion for importing food, essential items, and medicine and USD 500 million for procuring fuel from India.

On March 10, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a notification to initiate the USD 500 million line of credit provided by India to Sri Lanka, to finance the purchase of petroleum products.

According to foreign media, the Sri Lankan finance minister is expected to seal the Indian credit facility of USD 1 billion for importing food, essential items, and medicine during this visit.