The treasury is no longer able to safeguard public entities that incur losses or that have not achieved the desired goals, at a time when the country is in a severe economic crisis, said state minister of finance Shehan Semasinghe.
Speaking at a ministry function, he said that 39 out of the 52 strategically important public entities are making profits while the 13 others are still making losses.
The losses incurred currently amount to Rs. 1,029 billion, while the profits made are at Rs. 218 billion, he said.
The annual losses made by the public entities is more than Rs. 811 billion, while only Rs. 28 billion paid by the profit-making ones as taxes to the treasury.
As a result of the economic crisis, Sri Lanka has to follow the globally accepted economic methods, pointing out that Sri Lanka would never have adopted such economic measures if there was no such experience a worst economic crisis.
The methods to be adopted by a country to stabilize the economy of a country should be identified by itself, he added.
