The treasury is no longer able to safeguard public institutions that incur losses or that have not reached the desired goals, at a time when the country is in a severe economic crisis, says Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe. Speaking at an event held at the finance ministry, the minister emphasised that 39 of the 52 strategically important public institutions are making profits while 13 of them are still making losses. The losses incurred by 13  public institutions currently amount to Rs 1,029 billion while the profits made by the 39 enterprises are at Rs 218 billion, he said. He also highlighted that the annual loss made by the public institutions is more than Rs 811 billion, adding that only Rs 28 billion have been paid by the profit-making public institutions as taxes to the treasury. The government would not continue to run the loss-making institutions to add to the burden on the people but will continue to be the regulatory body, said Semasinghe, reports The Morning.
