TWIN EVILS “Reducing corruption vulnerabilities through improving fiscal transparency and public financial management, introducing a stronger anticorruption legal framework and conducting an in-depth governance diagnostic, supported by IMF technical assistance” are among the conditions set by the lender of last resort to disburse the first tranche of its US$ 2.9 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF), for which a staff-level agreement has been reached but is pending finalisation.

Whether any of the proposed actions to stop the rot will see the light of day however, is a burning question among the citizenry – and to date, there’s been little to suggest the powers that be will walk the talk, of which there’s been very little.

Together with Sri Lanka’s other perennial bugbear, which is tax evasion at its blatant best, corruption is costing us more than an arm and a leg – and these twin evils could mean that quality foreign investors are unlikely to come our way anytime soon.

Imagine where Sri Lanka’s finances would be, should meaningful action be taken to reduce corruption and widen the tax net by apprehending the evaders. To hazard a guess, we may no longer be in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis if the rogues and cheaters are rounded up without further ado.

In his budget speech in November, the president made only a fleeting reference to any action to address corruption; and the sceptics may be inclined to say that even if he did promise action, it would be in the form of an ‘investigative committee’ comprising the rogues themselves!

So our island economy, which may well have shrunk by nearly 10 percent in 2022, could be facing another contraction this year – to this end, one stockbroking firm recently cited contractions of 9.3 percent and 2.1 percent respectively.

So yes, our misery is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, amid more price hikes for essential services such as electricity and less money in the pocket when the new tax regime kicks in.

Year 2023 therefore, may turn out to be one in which we can only just breathe once more.

– Editor-in-Chief